Fifty years ago, Hollywood released a curious film, 1973’s The Day of the Dolphin. The plot centered on a marine biologist who “unwittingly … trained a dolphin to kill the President of the United States,” according to one promotional tagline.
That's pretty much all you need to know about the movie, an outlandish sci-fi thriller typical of the era. Nevertheless, the film struck a chord with conspiracy buffs who, for more than a decade prior to the picture’s release, were already spinning compelling theories that happy, intelligent, innocent dolphins could be reconditioned into ruthless killers.
Over the years, theorists have further speculated (with varying levels of coherence and evidence) that the U.S. already has trained squads of battle dolphins. Their mission: kill enemy divers, plant mines on the hulls of opposing ships, and generally cause maritime mayhem with the mere flick of a flipper.
Back in the ‘70s, it should have been easy for the U.S. Navy to dismiss such rumors, but there was just one little problem: As part of a secret program that dated back to the height of the Cold War, the Navy actually was training dolphins and other marine mammals for military purposes.
