Obama channels JFK to pitch Iran deal

As he defends his nuclear deal with Iran, U.S. President Barack Obama is honing a larger vision of foreign policy — one in which military power alone can’t achieve the most important objectives, America is strongest when leading an international coalition, and even an imperfect agreement with a sworn enemy can be progress, not capitulation.

Now, in a speech Wednesday at American University drawing on Cold War history — namely, a 1963 address by John F. Kennedy proposing new dialogue with the Soviet Union — Obama will try to reframe the Iran debate around the grander worldview underlying his new dialogue with Tehran and Cuba.