the personal relationship based on complete confidence and fondness between richard nixon and thomas dewey. knickson wanted to name dewey warren's successor. he wanted to elevate him to the supreme court. dewey said, basically, i'm too old. he wanted to be secretary of defense. wanted to be anything in his government, and this was gratitude but a relationship that was forged without question back in a time when thomas dewey identified nixon as a young political comer. >> i know that after my father was nominated and eisenhower and my father met, eisenhower admitted he didn't realize just quite how young my father was when he made the decision for him to be the running mate. i don't think he realized he was 39. maybe he thought he was 41 or something. thought he was 42? >> that's right. 39 years old. >> let me go back to what david said about governor dewey. that's exactly right. eisenhower's campaign for president was run by due yes, brownell, and clay. but dewey always stayed in the background because he had run in '48 and '44 and lost both times so remained in the background, but dewey i