Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Beevor on writing about war

I was skeptical at first of his thoughts about writing about certain things causing insomnia, but then remembered that my wife once asked me not to read about My Lai after 4 p.m.

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This is an interesting issue. I was skeptical at first of his thoughts about writing about certain things causing insomnia, but then remembered that my wife once asked me not to read about My Lai after 4 p.m. so that I would come out of my funk by dinnertime. (I spent about six weeks one winter immersed in the documents emerging from the investigation.)

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Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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