War & Peace Quote by Morley Safer

Negotiation, Safer suggests, isn’t just diplomacy; it’s a psychological booby trap. “It is always disarming to treat with the enemy, so to speak” turns on a sly double meaning: to be disarming is to be charming, but also to be stripped of your weapons. The line catches the uneasy moment when civility forces you to lower your guard, when the rituals of talk - handshakes, polite phrasing, shared tables - make hostility feel almost impolite. That’s the danger: conversation can anesthetize suspicion without resolving the conflict underneath.

Coming from Morley Safer, a journalist whose career was built on witnessing institutions under pressure, the phrase “so to speak” matters. It’s a reporter’s hedge and a wink at the artificiality of the label “enemy.” He’s acknowledging that the category is often constructed - by war rooms, by politics, by headlines - yet its emotional charge remains real. Calling someone “the enemy” hardens a narrative; “treat with” them introduces ambiguity. You can’t keep a person fully monstrous once you’ve had to parse their arguments in real time.

The intent isn’t pacifist sentimentality; it’s a warning about how proximity and procedure can manipulate perception. Safer captures the core tension of journalism itself: access can soften you. To sit across from power (or violence) and ask questions is to risk being seduced by coherence, by courtesy, by the illusion that mutual language equals mutual goals. The quote works because it frames dialogue as both necessary and destabilizing - not a moral cure, but a tactical vulnerability.