To
Andrea Darvi Plate, MSW, LCSW,

who endured the not inconsiderable efforts and author’s isolation that produced this book with her customary knowing stares, stoic wails and quiet pain. She holds academic degrees from UC Berkeley, USC and UCLA, but her work with the severely challenged veteran population at the U.S. Veterans Administration Hospital in West Los Angeles, California, was too all-consuming to permit her time to read any drafts. Even so, without her … well, probably there might be no book, for she is greatly responsible for the wonders of my life and the steadiness of my career as an international journalist.

She is my wife, and who wouldn’t be lucky to have her?