A single decision can have lasting effects for decades – or longer. Such was the case with a product created in the early 1940s.
“Experiments with chemicals for the control of vegetative growth were first conducted around the turn of this century. The practical purpose of these early compounds was to control weeds that competed with crops for available water, nutrients, and sunlight … It was not until the 1940s that agricultural chemical research led to the development of a number of synthetic compounds capable of regulating or suppressing plant growth…these compounds were termed selective herbicides … Two of the most successful developments during that period were the discoveries of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.”1 “The problem with 2,4,5-T is its production process: the process itself contaminates the chemical with a byproduct called TCDD, a dioxin.
“Dioxins are persistent organic pollutants, also known as “forever chemicals.” While [2,4-D and 2,4,5-T] as a whole dried quickly and broke down when exposed to sunlight when not bound to soil, leaves or grass, the TCDD dioxin contaminants … do not. TCDD is a human carcinogen and the most harmful of all dioxins.”2
In the 1940s, the combination of the chemicals was used in industrial weed control. By the 1950s, the United States government confiscated the herbicides and convinced nine chemical companies to produce their product for the government only. What would the government want with all these herbicides?
On November 1, 1955, the United States entered the Vietnam War, a war that last until April 30, 1975. On this day in 1961, these two chemicals now known as Agent Orange were sprayed for the first time across the rural parts of Vietnam to destroy the crops, deprive the people of food, and to clear visibility for the soldiers. Operation Ranch Hand began in 1962 when U.S. Air Force C-123s using the call sign “Hades” dropped a total of nearly 20 million gallons of Rainbow Herbicides – Agent White, Agent Blue, Agent Purple, Agent Pink, Agent Green, and Agents Orange, Orange I, Orange II, and Super Orange. Thirteen million gallons were Agent Orange.3
Remember the forever chemicals – dioxins? They continue to affect people today. “In 1979, a class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 2.4 million veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during their service in Vietnam.” And 4.8 million Vietnamese were affected.4
Cancers, heart disease, AL amyloidosis and other blood disorders, genetic mutations,
and a host of other maladies are the results of Rainbow Herbicides exposure. People still suffer from one decision made on this day 63 years ago.
A few thousand years ago, Abraham made a decision, the effects of which are still felt to this day. Genesis 16:1-4 tells us, “Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. (2) And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. (3) And Sarai Abram’s wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. (4) And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived: and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.”
The offspring of this liaison was Ishmael, half-brother to Isaac and all of Israel. Ishmael fathered what would be the Saudi Arabians. Israel and the Saudis have never had formal diplomatic relations. In fact, Saudi Arabia served as one of the founders of the Arab League of Nations which has an anti-Israel bias.
While relations were starting to warm a little, this changed in 2023 during the Hamas attack on Israel. Prior to the attack, anti-Israeli rhetoric was being removed from print. However, when Hamas attacked Israel, “96% of Saudi participants (in a survey) believed that Arab nations should cut all ties with Israel.”5
A single decision can have lasting effects for decades – or longer. This truth ought to shake us up and make us realize that consequences for our sins can linger for a very long time. In closing, consider what Moses wrote in Numbers 14:17-18. “And now, I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, (18) The LORD is longsuffering, and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.”
1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK236351/
2https://www.military.com/history/why-us-used-agent-orange-vietnam-and-what-makes-it-so-deadly.html
3https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/agent-orange-1
4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Herbicides
5https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel%E2%80%93Saudi_Arabia_relations
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