peaceful as this place was, was a chance for him to recharge his batteries. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: american history television takes you live to the museum of the bible in washington dc next saturday for a symposium on the bible and its influence on the founding of america. historians explore references to the bible in 18th-century political discourse, entering the american revolution, and examine benjamin franklin's much debated faith. at 9 a.m.age begins eastern next saturday, february 10. >> in the early 1970's while teaching at the university of arkansas, bill and hillary clinton purchased this fayetteville home. join us inside as we look at the house and learn about their early years as a married couple. >> we're at the clinton house

museum, a little south of the edge of the university of arkansas campus. this house was built in 1931 by a local man named scotty taylor. it would have been in the middle of the ozarks and the depression at that time. this would have seen fancy -- seemed fancy for that era. in 1975tons pop's house and did a little bit of remodeling. but this house is entirely original for the most part. the house became a nationally historic registered property in 2010. the street became clinton avenue in 2010 as well. this is the living room, the famous broom where bill clinton and hillary rodham were married. house whilethis hillary was out of town and surprised her when she came back from visiting friends and family.

said, i bought the house she thought was pretty. you have to marry me. she said yes, on the third try. the house is original to 1931, floors, windows, all of those things. it is a small place to get married. the claims had only 10 guests for their wedding. -- clemens had only 10 guests for their wedding. -- clintons had only 10 guests for their wedding. this is a faithful replica of hillary clinton's wedding dress. it was designed by a longtime friend of the clintons. hillary tried on the dress the night before her wedding at her mother's insistence. said, you have to get

a nice dress for the wedding. pulled the stress off the rack at dillard's the night before the wedding for $53. they pulled the dress off the rack at dillard's the night before the wedding for $53. both mothers hoped hillary rotherham would change her name to clinton, but she kept her last name and bill clinton was very happy. clinton and hillary claim -- came to fayetteville, they had just graduated from your law school. they were just a young couple like so many others. they didn't really have any furniture. getting started in life. their life had lots of political activity and friends. they were traveling back and forth to little rock and doing other things.

lot inre traveling a those years. they didn't have a lot of money, but spent a lot of time holding networks and friendships. participate in public service began for both hillary and bill alertly -- ear ly. hillary's graduation address at national made quite a splash. it was fairly radical for her time. she went on to yell law school and that is where she met bill. law school and that is where she met bill. bill clinton met president kennedy in 1963, a few months before he was assassinated. was involved in lots of democratic initiatives all across the country, worked hard for george mcgovern, in arkansas, for j fulbright. he knew this was going to be the path he was going to take and

gained a lot of experience before running for office. before the clintons were married, and bill was living he decided he would run for congress. he talked it over with the dean of the law school, who gave him his blessing. he decided to run against john paul hammerschmidt. he asked several other people to run against him, a popular republican in the third district. no one else wanted to do it. they wanted to run for other things. he decided, maybe it should be him. everyone thought he was fighting a losing battle, and he probably was and new it. he said, he didn't think it could hurt his options. that early campaign in 1974, he --t, that only by about 6000

but only about 6000 votes, pretty remarkable for a newcomer against a broad republican district. he said losing that congressional election enabled him to go to the white house. n the had one -- wo election for congress, he would've gone to washington and estate. -- and stayed. one of the fun things about the dining room for most people -- the clintons used it as the campaign headquarters. decided to run for attorney general of two years after losing to john paul hammerschmidt. inhad two primary contenders the democratic primary. handily in the statewide primary race. there was not a contender in the general election. he was running his northwest

arkansas part of the attorney general campaign from here in the dining room. because he did not have an opponent, he was able to work on behalf of jimmy carter in 1976. he was the arkansasbecause he dd jimmy carter went on to win 55% of the arkansas votes that era. wentg this time, hillary to indiana and ran the carter campaign there and helped set up campaign offices. their lives were very much about political campaigns and working on behalf of democrats throughout the country. bill became the attorney general rather easily in 1976. would becomeer, the country's youngest governor in 1978. hillary cap tournament, her maiden name when bill and hillary were married, which would have been unusual in 1975 across the country. and she worelook

glasses and no makeup and natural hair, that kind of thing. his second term as governor in 1980, you see her transformation and his transformation politically speaking about what the people needed most, and her transformation into what arkansas would have considered an appropriate first lady. she changed her hair, started wearing contacts and makeup. you see the clothing change a lot. it is very apparent in the early 80's. ran for bill clinton governor and one that time. he was able to go back to the governor's office and have this new first lady with him. the clinton house museum is the great american story, like so many others.

it is a great example of the best of american ideals. people can start from nowhere and work hard and engage in everc service and do what it is they set their mind to. when you get the chance to spend time in the same place other people have lived, you get to absorb that energy and think about how people got started in their lives and where they later end up. our visitors love that idea. placeike to see this where these two powerful, smart people spent their early days and were plotting out to their life story. story. their life announcer: we recently traveled to fayetteville are -- fayetteville, arkansas. learn more about the city and other stops on her cities tour at c-span.org/citiestour. you are watching american

history tv, all weekend every weekend on c-span3. >> next, the wife of u.s. army general will be in west morland who commanded u.s. military forces in vietnam talks about her life. she recounts living in vietnam and serving as a red cross nurses aide during the war. recounts meeting presidents and first ladies, as well as her friendship with bob and divorce help. this interview is a little over an hour. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] we are in the west point center for oral history. i am here with catherine west katharine-- westmoreland.