Re “1968: The year the tempest hit Harvard’’ (Page A1, May 20): Perhaps more than any other university, Harvard produced the architects, engineers, and mechanics of the murderous war in Vietnam, from a president to secretaries of state and defense to national security advisers. These were men of enormous power, prestige, and wealth. They were feted on campus and across the country. You would recognize their names (Kennedy, Kissinger, McNamara, Bundy). One shared the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the same time, Harvard probably produced more imprisoned war resisters than any other university. I personally knew five of them in the federal prison system. These were modest young men who transposed their Harvard experience into true public service at great sacrifice, a fitting testimony to their education. To my knowledge, no administrator ever visited them in prison.

Then as now, the question remains: Who did what with their Harvard experience, and of whom should Harvard be prouder?

John Bach

Arlington

The writer is the Quaker chaplain at Harvard.