WATERGATE: Trying to Get the T-R-U-T-H

The ordeal of testifying was finally over for Watergate Conspirator John Dean, who stuck steadily to his story under the often clashing cross-examination of lawyers for the defendants in the Watergate cover-up trial. But the travail had barely begun for Federal Judge John J. Sirica and the 21 lawyers locked in the multisided legal struggle. Already, tempers were turning testy. Frequently, the drama centered more on the extraordinary exchanges among the judge and counsel than on the fate of the five defendants.

With the jury either out of the courtroom or beyond earshot,...