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Came across articles today from two past editors of the L.A. Times editorial page. Tom Plate, who also held the job at the Herald Examiner, writes on the L.A. Business Journal commentary page (not online) regarding parallels between Iraq and Vietnam, from his vantage point as a UCLA professor who is founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network.
The other piece is by Anthony Day, Plate's predecessor, in Smithsonian. He writes on the "innocent deceptions" of Patrick O'Brian, author of Master and Commander and 19 other sea adventure novels. (I also have a small story in the December Smithsonian, a "Points of Interest" entry on the L.A. Coroner's gift shop.)