As anchor , Brokaw conducted the first one-on-one American television interviews with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian President Vladimir Putin . He and Katie Couric hosted a prime-time newsmagazine , '' Now '' , that aired from 1993 – 94 before being folded into the multi-night '' Dateline NBC '' program . Also , in 1993 , on the first broadcast of '' Late Show with David Letterman '' on CBS , in response to David Letterman 's monologue containing jokes about NBC , Brokaw walked on stage in a surprise cameo ( accompanied by Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra playing the '' NBC Nightly News '' theme ) . He congratulated Letterman on his new show and wished him well , but also stated he was disappointed and shocked ; he subsequently walked over to the man holding the cue cards , took two , and remarked , " These last two jokes are the intellectual property of NBC ! " , leaving the stage afterwards . Letterman then remarked , " Who would have thought you would ever hear the words ' intellectual property ' and ' NBC ' in the same sentence ? " On September 11 , 2001 , Brokaw joined Katie Couric and Matt Lauer around 9:30 a.m. , following the live attack on the South Tower of the World Trade Center , and continued to anchor all day , until after midnight . Following the collapse of the second tower , Brokaw observed : " This is war . This is a declaration and an execution of an attack on the United States . " He continued to anchor coverage to midnight on the following two days . Later that month , a letter containing anthrax was addressed to him as part of the 2001 anthrax attacks . Brokaw was not harmed , but two NBC News employees were infected . In 2008 , he testified before the Commission on Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism about the anthrax attacks , publicly discussing his experiences for the first time in a detailed , day-by-day account
2001 anthrax attacks
2001 anthrax attacks
Tom Brokaw