I've read the interview too. The matter with the dates is that those dates used by Zahn in the Thrawn trilogy are not used in any other of the Pst-ROTJ EU books. IAnd I think that already in the Last Command he has adopted new dates. Vader couldn't have been possibly existed 30 ybANH because Luek and Leia are only 18 years old at the beginning of ANH. So Anakin's fall had to happen 18 ybANH. i'd put the Clone Wars from 31ybANH till 22 y.bANH, then a short period of decadence, with most JEdi slain during the war. The Galaxy ravaged by the war would need a new order. Some Jedi, halftrained Jedi that were awarded as Knights to participate in the war, then take rogue actions and start ruining the reputation of the Jedi Order, Palpy, of whom it is said that was placed by the bureaucrats as Chancellor, offers a solution: a New Order. I can imagine that Palpy would have engineered some new threat that would allow Palpy as the head of the republic to force his solution to everybody. SOmewhere he'd blame the Jedi for the war, woudl blame the for lots of other things, and he'd offer the Republic to neutralize such dangerous elements. Palpy would have also have perverted Anakin enough to use him to sabotage the order. I must says I got carried away, but that's about what i am writing my preqs.