so the first people who met him as far back as 1922 a junior military and embassy called truman smithcannot a hearse correspondent thought this guy is an amazing demagogue and he could go far. but it wasn't linear. it wasn't that people gradually do more and more. a lot of people dismiss too much too late. and then you just have these stories. thinking through these american stories, it had a of care or is that i think a lot of casting is in this town would have a hard time making up. i mean, two quick examples. hans finkel. just the name. but his father's bavarian, his mother was from a bostonian family. citrix very famous family. by the way from his grandfather was a civil war general and helped carry lincoln's coffin. he's a harvard graduate of 19 notre dame. among his classmates as teddy roosevelt junior. this is the white house, please harvard marching songs all the time. he marries a young woman named helen, was a new yorker through and through. her parents came from germany did they come to munich in early 1920s and they become friends at the local agitator called adolf hitler.

truman's balcony on the south side. angered at virginia congressman howard w. smith for removing an appropriation that would have doubled the west wing, truman took $16,000 in household funds, the allowance for the household, and built his balcony. this required nothing from congress, not a penny. and it affirmed the president -- that the president alone had real authority over the white house, which of course he does. truman insisted that he had improved the architecture of the building. that was in 1947. in 1948, a campaign button read, "harry, why did you build that balcony for dewey?" when immediately after his election that year, truman undertook on the direction of the army corps of engineers again, to rebuild the white house. he insisted it was a restoration. and he personally protected the original walls from abuse, insisting that they be saved. a new white house was built inside of them. those floors lincoln had tried went to ft. myers to landfill. truman was no antiquarian, but he deeply believed that the president should remain in the white house. and when

truman. i persisted. >> when your grandmother wanted you to meet did she have an eye toward court ship. >> no doubt about it. >> i had seen mamie about a month before i went to smith and i had seen the eisenhowers recently at palm desert. >> we were seek really engaged within a year of meeting in college. >> it was a whirlwind court ship. >> whirlwind and my grandmother was behind it all the way. she was in on the secret and she was the one that provided the ring and everything. should i have admitted that? >> yeah, that's good. >> when you did get married, your grandfather-in-law gave you a copy of that picture and signed it. >> he stayed for julie nixon who seems to have unknowingly have acquired an admirer. it was cute. >> i'm not sure the audience can see. you had a shiner in that picture. >> yes. i had a black eye from a slegd accident. washington had a huge snowstorm. lost control of my sled, went into a tree. >> lucy and linda would know exactly where this picture was taken. this is the north end of the white house where the presidential stand is. i can remember the inaugural of 1957 very vividly. it's the beginning of my engagement with the eisenhower pres