Vietnam Reunion

* Kudos to David Lamb for writing so moving a piece on the reunion of Vietnamese family members who had been divided for years during the conflict (July 24). Although my 1 1/2-year tour in South Vietnam in the Foreign Service ended 32 years ago, it has become a deep-seated component of my conscience and memory.

Lamb helped to evoke some of the conflicting emotions I felt on leaving that country, my first encounter with Asia. I wanted to utter “a plague on both your houses” for the senseless cruelty on the part of both antagonists and the meaninglessness of a war we should never have entered, had we been intelligent enough to learn from the French example. I cried when embracing my Vietnamese servants, whom I knew I would never see again. I cried again when reading Lamb’s sensitive account.

ALBERT BALL

Temecula