War & Peace Quote by James Reston

War doesn’t just kill people; it degrades the civic software that lets a society think. Reston’s line lands because it refuses the comforting idea that propaganda is a regrettable side effect. He frames it as the operating principle of conflict: once a nation commits to war, the incentives tilt hard toward emotional certainty, simplified stories, and loyalty tests. “Common sense” isn’t folksy wisdom here so much as basic risk assessment - the ability to ask, calmly, whether the stated goals match the likely costs. That faculty becomes the first “casualty” because war needs urgency, and urgency hates nuance.

The second loss, “free and open discussion,” follows with grim logic. Democracies in wartime tend to treat dissent as sabotage and questions as weakness. The phrase “free and open” is doing extra work: it’s not only about censorship from above, but about the social penalties that make people self-censor. When reputations, careers, or safety hinge on signaling unity, the marketplace of ideas turns into a parade.

Reston, a Cold War-era journalist who watched governments sell military action through selective facts and moral panic, is also defending his own profession’s endangered role. The quote reads like a warning label for news consumers: in wartime, official narratives will arrive pre-sanitized, and even well-meaning citizens will help enforce them. It’s a reminder that the front line runs through language itself - and that once debate collapses, mistakes don’t just happen; they compound.