JOHN YANG: There's a big parade in Washington, D.C. On the streets, tanks and thousands of soldiers in the air, flyovers and parachute jumps and for taxpayers, a big price tag, as much as $45 million.

It's all to honor the Army's 250th anniversary today, which is also President Trump's 79th birthday.

Richard Kohn is a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a former chief of Air Force History at the Pentagon.

Mr. Kohn, we've had military parades in the past, not a lot of them.

The last one was in 1991 after the first Gulf War.

Put this into some perspective for us.

What have the sort of the tone of military parades been like through history, and how does this one fit into that context?

RICHARD KOHN, University of North Carolina: Well, most of the military parades have been to celebrate and commemorate war or battlefield victories of great historic meaning.

Now, this one's a little unusual because it's an important commemoration of 250 years of the Army's contribution to American defense in American society.

And now it's been linked to President Trump's birthday, which I think is unfortunate, but nevertheless the case.

JOHN YANG: Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky says has said he's concerned about the message this parade is going to send, that it may send the wrong message.

He said this is more fitting for North Korea or the former Soviet Union.

What do you say to that?

What's your reaction to that?

RICHARD KOHN: Well, I can understand because in a sense, it's those parades and commemorations are always meant to buttress the power and the place of autocrats in their society and linking this to President Trump smacks of that.

And also most of our parades are of the people involved in the military and not of hardware.

Flyovers, yes, for events, but we're used to those in sporting events and so on.

So this one's really quite unusual.

JOHN YANG: The president says he wants to show off the best army in the world, that he wants to show the world the might of the United States.

What do you say to that?

RICHARD KOHN: Well, I think that's redundant.

I mean, the world knows of our military power, and the American people do, too.

And they also know of the great success that this army has had in battle and in wars over many, many decades and even over two centuries.

So I don't think that needs to be brought to their attention.

And the attention, you know, given what's going on in Los Angeles and what given the president threats are really not the way we have commemorated our military.

JOHN YANG: What message do you see this parade sending both at home and abroad?

RICHARD KOHN: Well, I think it sets the message because of President Trump's kind of making it all about him as much as he can.

I think it communicates some weakness of the United States, the weakness of its leadership, the necessity to display equipment, much of which I think in future warfare might not be as effective as it's been in the past.

It's really, in a sense, disgusting.

And I can understand Rand Paul's and many other people's doubts about the wisdom of having such a parade for one of our five services.

JOHN YANG: President Trump likes to appear with the military.

It seems he does a lot of things with military.

They gave a speech at Fort Bragg recently.

What do you make of the way the president interacts with the military?

RICHARD KOHN: Well, he interacts with the military really at a distance.

He tries to link himself to it, even though he'd never served.

The real bottom line is that he has been politicizing the military.

If you look at his speeches, West Point, Fort Bragg, they're really -- much of it is wandering and inappropriate and not the commemoration and talking about the military, talking about the American people's sacrifices in the military and the other important parts of military service to American society.

JOHN YANG: Richard Kohn, thank you very much.

RICHARD KOHN: My pleasure.

Thanks for having me on the broadcast.