A Blitz of WWII Books By Paul Dean, \o7 Paul Dean is a Times staff writer. He grew up in London during World War II and was a war correspondent in Vietnam\f7
The Spirit of Place By Michael Webb, \o7 Michael Webb is the author of "Architects House Themselves: Breaking New Ground" (Preservation Press), and eight other books on architecture and design\f7
In Brief By \f7 and \o7 New Albums Are Rated On A Scale Of One Star (Poor), Two Stars
(Fair), Three Stars (Good) and Four Stars (Excellent). and Jean Rosenbluth
*
Plan Should Link Los Angeles to Regional Economic Marketplace By J. Eugene Grigsby Iii, \o7 J. Eugene Grigsby III is director of UCLA's Center for Afro-American Studies and a professor in the university's School of Public Policy and Social Research\f7
DIPLOMACY : Spring Awakening: Fiasco of U.S. Policy in the Balkans By Walter Russell Mead, \o7 Walter Russell Mead, a contributing editor to Opinion, is the author of "Mortal Splendor: The American Empire in Transition" (Houghton Mifflin). He is working on a book about U.S. foreign policy\f7
THE WORLD : Why Not Break With Diplomatic Past and End Summits? By Robert A. Manning, \o7 Robert A. Manning, a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, was a State Department policy adviser from 1989-93 and is the author of "Asian Policy: The New Soviet Challenge in the Pacific" (20th Century Fund/Unwin Hyman). \f7
THE STATE : Shall We Just Call Him Pete (Huffington) Wilson? By Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, \o7 Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a senior associate at the Center for Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate School and a political analyst for KCAL-TV. \f7
Virtual Reality in Baja By Harry Basch and Shirley Slater, \o7 Slater and Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears the first and third week of every month. \f7