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historian douglas brinkley. >> it's one thing to say there was the police and african americans were.n birmingham. it's another thing to see the barking dogs and a fire hose. it's one thing to say they were using napalm in vietnam and, it's another thing to actually see napalm. >> pelley: in 1963, marvin kalb was on the diplomatic beat for cbs news. he told us the expansion to half an hour was liberating. >> it opened the door for many of the reporters who had never been seen before to show their stuff. and night after night, walter was able to introduce reporters from all over the world. >> and that's the way it is, monday, september 2, 1963. >> pelley: just 81 days after that sign-off, 81 days after that interview with president kennedy, the broadcast of november 22 opened this way. >> john fitzgerald kennedy was assassinated today in the 46th year of his life and his third year as president of the united states. >> pelley: that half hour was part of four days of unprecedented live coverage that saw television news come of age. more americans were now getting their news from tv than

>> douglas brinkley, as always, a pleasure.>> reaction in israel to the plan to seek congressional approval. we're live in tel aviv. oked nic? soft would be great, but we really just need "kid-proof." softsprings got both, let me show you. right over here. here, feel this. wow, that's nice. wow. the soft carpets have never been this durable. you know i think we'll take it. get kid-friendly toughness and feet-friendly softness, without walking all over your budget. he didn't tell us it would do this. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, get up to 24 months special financing when you use your home depot credit card. ♪ we go, go, we don't have to go solo ♪ ♪ fire, fire, you can take me higher ♪ ♪ take me to the mountains, start a revolution ♪ ♪ hold my hand, we can make, we can make a contribution ♪ ♪ brand-new season, keep it in motion ♪ ♪ 'cause the rhyme is the reason ♪ ♪ break through, man, it doesn't matter who you're talking to ♪ [ male announcer ] completely redesigned for whatever you lov

here with some perspective, fareed zakaria and douglas brinkley. fareed, let me start with you.ou heard the president bring up world war ii, the bombings on london that happened before the u.s. entered into the war. you heard secretary of state bring up hitler in much more direct ways, and nazi germany in much more direct ways. are these apt comparisons, do you think? >> no, they are not apt to begin with. let's just remember our history. adolf hitler controlled the largest army in the world in 1938 when the munich accord was signed, second richest or third richest country in the world and had a plan to conquer all of europe, perhaps all of the world. assad runs one of the poorest countries in the world, miserable conditions, is desperately trying to stay in charge of his own little misbegotten country but more importantly, the mistake here is that there is a vast divergence developing between the rhetoric the president is using, john kerry is using, and what we're proposing. so if indeed this is like world war ii, if this is like munich, if this is all about stopping adolf hitl

here with some perspective, fareed zakaria and douglas brinkley. fareed, let me start with you. heard the president bring up world war ii, the bombings on london that happened before the u.s. entered into the war. you heard secretary of state bring up hitler in much more direct ways, and nazi germany in much more direct ways. are these apt comparisons, do you think? >> no, they are not apt to begin with. let's just remember our history. adolf hitler controlled the largest army in the world in 1938 when the munich accord was signed, second richest or third richest country in the world and had a plan to conquer all of europe, perhaps all of the world. assad runs one of the poorest countries in the world, miserable conditions, is desperately trying to stay in charge of his own little misbegotten country but more importantly, the mistake here is that there is a vast divergence developing between the rhetoric the president is using, john kerry is using, and what we're proposing. so if indeed this is like world war ii, if this is like munich, if this is all about stopping adolf hitler

"outfront," douglas brinkley and new york time op ed who spent a lot of time in syria.g, let me start with you. the president said essentially, i know that there is all this rhetoric around these words. he threatened war. i'm going to strike. and then the united states is not striking at all. is he in uncharted waters in terms of how he has handled this as president? theodore roosevelt said speak loudly and carry a big stick. our big stick is the military. he is in uncharted waters. i think the president tonight has to bring some clarity to what's happening. people are very confused. one day it seem like we're about to go to war. then we're not. we're having a vote in the senate and we're not. it might be a day, a week, a month. hopefully he can realign his administration's posture tonight. >> and i know, you have spent a lot of time there. you've covered this a lot. you're someone who talked well about the president when you think he deserved it. you said this has not been his finest hour. >> no. i think there have been a lot of zigs and zags here. i think i would comp

. >> joining me now is douglas brinkley, presidential historian and professor at rice university.or, good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> the mission tonight for the president is to change people's minds and to swing public opinion. how heavy a lift is it in the context of what those presidents we're dealing with? >> well, you know, he switched now. it's not going to be an oval office speech. usually when you have a war talk, you do it to have the gravitas of the oval office. now it's going to the east room. so that's been a recent switch today. i think this has changed. it is now a peace speech. it's that we've got a window. you are all right about verification, that's important and peace through strength and all of that. but i think there is a peace window here and he's going to explore that and tell us what is at stake with syria and international security. it's been a bit muddled and he has an opportunity now to bring clarity. >> does he have to lay out an end game? how far does the president go? his detractors are saying he's not going far enough by p

historian douglas brinkley, thank you so much.ing, john kerry is going to be on cnn. >> the secretary of state joins our gloria borger to talk about the situation in syria and the u.s. response. "state of the union" is right here at 9:00 a.m. eastern. >>> a lot of people are asking why is america the world's policeman? why is the u.s. responsible for calming the violence in places like syria? more on the debate. that's next on "new day." [ lane ] are you growing old waiting for your wrinkle cream to work? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula. to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. is that true? says here that cheerios has whole grain oats that can help remove some cholesterol, and that's heart healthy. ♪ [ dad ] jan? ♪ she loves a lot of it's what you love about her. but your erectile dysfunction - that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. a

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joining us, presidential historian douglas brinkley.eted yesterday "this is the most important presidential act on the constitution and warfare. >> since truman decided we didn't need to go to congress for the korean war, plain spoken harry called it a police action, not a war. there's been a pendulum that says only congress can declare war. by going to congress with a very difficult situation with the outcome politically in this country uncertain, obama has done more to reverse that trend than any president. you had a caller on earlier talking about eight different military actions that we've launched without presidential approval, congressional approval in the last 30 years. and this is why this symbolically is so important. >> you agree, doug brinkley, that this politically, historically speaking, is a huge, huge moment in presidential history? >> it is but that doesn't even mean the next president's not going to have a grenada or panama or libya or some sort of intervention where they bypass congress. >> the question is does this un

before we do, we want to go to austin, and bring in douglas brinkley from rice university.ifficult is this situation for president obama meeting overseas with world leaders, holding a news conference to address these issues, but really speaking to the american people? >> well, and speaking to the world right now. this is all everybody's talking about. barack obama is in a very difficult situation. i think we have to see whether he believes his own show, his own war strategy here today. how much passion will he have in this presser. is he backing off a little bit. so far john kerry's been the prosecutor of the assad regime. barack obama's kind of middle-lined it a little bit. he's been at times passionate and at other times saying, look it, it's up to congress. so, i think it's very important that he sends a forceful message that he wants to go forward with this at the press conference. then come home and quickly address a national prime-time audience. we need to know more. we need to hear more of barack obama, not just his surrogates. >> how have previous presidents, dougla