Night of the Dolphin

In 1967, Novelist Robert Merle's The Day of the Dolphin postulated the preposterous: two dolphins were trained to speak, then used to plant underwater mines off Haiphong to stage a nuclear confrontation with China. But last week the Navy reluctantly admitted that black dolphins, trained at a Navy laboratory in San Diego, had been taken to Viet Nam to be used in a classified mission of surveillance and detection, possibly against enemy frogmen.

In his book, Merle fantasizes an interview with a dolphin named Fa:

Reporter: What do you think of Viet Nam?

Fa: We cannot withdraw. That would encourage aggression.

Reporter: Fa, in case of war, would you take arms for the United States?

Fa is not allowed to answer the question, but when the dolphin learns that he has been used to kill, he withdraws completely from men, refuses to speak again, and swims away to sea. If it is not careful, the Navy may yet have to send out an all-points bulletin that one or more of their dolphins is missing. Canada or Sweden would doubtless be glad to offer the cheerful creatures haven, as would a good many Americans who share the conviction that man's most intelligent rival on the planet ought to be spared his wars.

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