Top US hostage in Iran: 'this too will pass'

Bruce Laingen, the ranking American diplomat in Tehran, says that what has impressed him most during his three months in virtual captivity in Iran is his realization that there is great danger in encouraging hatred.

In a letter to his son Bill, a midshipman at the US Naval Academy, Mr. Laingen wrote: "I remain convinced that there is decency in Every human being. And that it will yet prevail here. . . . As the expression goes, all this too will pass. I remain confident of that."