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1. 1 media/Ari S. Merretazon mic set up.jpeg media/Bloods.jpg media/Ari Sesu Merretazon photo.jpeg 2023-01-19T15:43:46+00:00 Jason Higgins b37c4072bc57250df5afb301955a9262a5b86f21 Ari Sesu Merretazon 83 image_header 118 2023-07-19T16:34:34+00:00 Jason Higgins b37c4072bc57250df5afb301955a9262a5b86f21

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• 1 media/Ari S. Merretazon mic set up.jpeg media/Bloods.jpg media/Ari Sesu Merretazon photo.jpeg 2023-01-19T15:43:46+00:00 Ari Sesu Merretazon 83 image_header 118 2023-07-19T16:34:34+00:00 Introduction
  In April of 1968, when Ari Sesu Merretazon first came home from Vietnam, he returned to a nation on fire in the aftermath of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 
  
  Ari Sesu Merretazon, formerly known as Haywood Thomas Kirkland, is a Vietnam War veteran from Washington, D.C. He currently resides in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, and is the Chief of Staff at Pointman Soldiers Heart Ministry. Ari is most known for his work as an activist for racial justice and reparations to the descendants of enslaved people in the United States, including Black veterans.
  
  In 1966, Merretazon was drafted under Project 100,000 during the Vietnam War in 1966 as a recon infantry soldier. This program lowered draft eligibility standards to meet the demands of the escalating war in Vietnam. President Johnson and Robert McNamara argued that the program would uplift poor, semi-literate Black men out of poverty, but in reality it funneled poor, semi-literate Black men from the South into combat. During the first years of the war, Black men were twice as likely to die in combat compared to whites. 
  
  The realities of violence and experiences of racism in the military radicalized many Black soldiers and Merretazon found solidarity with other "Bloods" in the field. Counting down the days of their tours in Vietnam like prison sentences, Black soldiers would often daydream about what they would do if they made it back to the "world." Merretazon planned to continue the fight for civil rights in his community. 
  
  Life after Vietnam
  After the war, he returned home to Washington, D.C., where he was later arrested and incarcerated for an armed robbery of armored vehicle transporting more than $300,000 in cash to be incinerated by the Treasury Department. Merretazon served five-and-a-half years at Lorton Reformatory, a federal prison with a 99% Black population. While incarcerated, he organized a group of incarcerated veterans and launched the first VA office inside a prison staffed entirely by incarcerated veterans, called the Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organization. A self-help program, the IVAO helped veterans in prison file for disability rights. 
  
  These efforts drew national attention when the Washington Post published a news article in 1975. While still incarcerated, Ari Merretazon was invited to the White House to meet with then-President Jimmy Carter, who issued an executive directive to the Department of Justice to collect data on incarcerated veterans. 
  
  Advocating for Incarcerated Veterans
  Once released from prison, Merretazon began visiting prisons across the United States and recreating the Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organizations in facilities. He also enjoyed key support from Congressman Ronald V. Dellums-- vocal critic of the Vietnam War, civil rights activist, member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and the first African American to serve on the Armed Services Committee. “We were able to move in and out of prisons,” said Merretazon. “People from the president's office came down to visit us. That gave us a lot more protection and freedom to move around within the administrative processes and procedures of the prisons.”
  
  With support at the highest levels of political office, Merretazon began building a network of incarcerated veterans across the United States and gathering evidence that he would present to Congress in 1979. During that time, they discovered at “almost every prison in the United States, they had like 20-25 percent Vietnam veterans.” Merretazon engaged with prison administrators at other institutions and attempted to replicate the model first established at Lorton Reformatory with VA offices staffed entirely by incarcerated veterans. He would advocate for this model before Congress as a way to redress the inadequate VA outreach efforts to prisons at the time.

  In July 1979, Congress held hearings on incarcerated Vietnam veterans before the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, highlighting key issues and structural barriers they faced.

  The complete lack of information and reliable estimates on the actual number of incarcerated veterans seriously limited any efforts to provide VA services to veterans in prison. Based on GAO studies, VA records, and direct access to prisons, Ari Sesu Merretazon estimated, “We got over 500,000 Vietnam era veterans in prison, jail, on parole, or awaiting sentence . . . Over half of them are Black.” A GAO report estimated that 60,000 veterans were incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and that 50 percent incarcerated in federal prison were convicted of armed robbery or drug-related offenses. Chairman of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Alan Cranston noted that “educationally disadvantaged veterans constitute a large segment of the incarcerated prison population.” Many veterans also believed they automatically lost disability benefits in prison. An estimated 40 percent were ineligible due to less than honorable discharge status. According to the Government Accounting Office, 44,000 incarcerated veterans were denied disability benefits in 1975. By 1978, another study found that over half of incarcerated veterans had received less-than-honorable discharges, and half of them were Black Vietnam veterans.  

  After testifying before Congress, Merretazon moved to Little Rock, Arkansas to help start a Vet Center. He earned a law degree from Antioch School of Law in 1980 and decided to take his knowledge where it would be more useful. He explained, “I didn't want to stay in the major cities because they have so much more resources. I felt that based on my experience inside of prisons . . . that the worst conditions for veterans to exist was in the Southern prisons: Angola, Arkansas State Prison, and Parchman Farm in Mississippi.” But he came into conflict with a psychiatrist at the Little Rock Vet Center. Merretazon lamented, “I went there with expectations that I could continue to work with veterans in prison. . . He refused to allow me to go into the prisons and assist veterans.”
  
  In 1984, he helped revitalize the Arkansas State Press, a historically Black newspaper that had not published an issue since 1959. At the newspaper, he worked with Daisy Bates, a long-time serving President of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, who helped integrate Little Rock Central High. JET magazine ran a featured story on Merretazon and Daisy Bates in April 1984. Throughout his life, Merretazon has continued to be an advocate for incarcerated veterans, for education, and for reparations. His organizing undoubtedly played a pivotal role in incarcerated veterans becoming a priority for national veterans organizations. Beginning in the summer of 1979, the Vietnam Veterans of America, a national organization made up of and dedicated to the needs of Vietnam veterans, would take the lead on raising awareness to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and in 1983, it established a legal services program for veterans in the criminal justice system. 

  Legacies
  Today, Ari Sesu Merretazon is advocate for justice, for veterans in his community, and an activist for reparations. Most recently, he filed a lawsuit against the City of Philadelphia because, although it is required by state law, there was no director of Veterans Affairs for the city of Philadelphia. His story has been told in Bloods, an oral history collection of Black Vietnam veterans, by Wallace Terry, and imaginatively adapted in the 1995 film Dead Presidents. But these accounts only tell a partial story.
  
  Merretazon is perhaps the single most influential advocate for incarcerated veterans in American history. 

  Interview Part One    

       The first interview with Ari Sesu Merretazon recounts his early life in Washington, D.C., with his family. Ari discusses how his parents, his upbringing, and the historical protests that occurred during his childhood shaped his outlook on the military and the United States. In 1966, Merretazon was drafted for the Vietnam War and served from 1966 to 1968. According to him, the relationships between black and white people in the military were severely strained. The protests surrounding civil rights, Kennedy’s  assassination, and racism significantly contributed to the division. Ari’s occupation in Vietnam was as a recon infantry soldier and emphasized ‘search, kill, and destroy’ missions. A major connection between soldiers within the war was the solidarity among black soldiers. Ari emphasizes how the only way they survived was through their blood love. 95% of the stockade in Vietnam was Black soldiers, further enforcing solidarity. Ari also stated that this solidarity transferred into sympathy for the Vietnamese people. The power struggles made both groups gravitate towards each other; however, the ‘search, kill, and destroy’ missions destroyed Vietnam and broke the Vietnamese spirit. The kill-or-be-killed mentality ran rampant. The long-lasting psychological effects of the war were also imperative to understanding the conditions of black soldiers in and out of Vietnam.

  Interview Part Two

       The second interview begins with Ari’s diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the efforts made to gain disability benefits through Veteran Affairs (V.A.). The interview then discusses the use of drugs such as marijuana and heroin. The use of drugs was very prevalent due to the explosion of drugs in black communities. Ari attempted to provide resources for those affected by drug use within his community. Rap sessions also played a vital role in assisting with war trauma. Not only did surviving the war impact Ari’s mental state but impacted the relationships he had with his parents. Ari also discusses how he was imprisoned at Lorton Reformatory for five-and-a-half years (1969-1979) for the armed robbery of a mail truck transporting more than $300,000 in US currency scheduled to be incinerated.

  Ari mentions the large racial difference in rates of incarceration. More specifically, how Lorton Reformatory consisted of 95% black men. However, Merretazon’s work in the Reformatory was revolutionary. He introduced higher education, base camps, and self-care programs. This work was so critical to achieving veteran reparations that Ari was able to meet with Jimmy Carter while incarcerated and testified before congress after he was released. Eventually, the work reached a point where veteran rights and reparations reached the Senate, and proper procedures and movement of veterans were established. The interview concludes with a powerful statement Ari made: “war is prison too.” This statement has profound sentiment toward the harsh conditions faced by imprisoned persons and the inability to forget or move past it, just as war.

  Interview Part Three

  The third and final interview with Ari dives into his work with the Vietnam Veterans of America after his release from prison. The work began with a fruitful education, part of which he earned from the Antioch School of Law as a legal technician. With his background, Ari could assess the significant number of incarcerated veterans without disability benefits and set up the Incarcerated Veterans Assistance Organization and regressed to a partnership with governments in Washington, D.C. This work led to alliances with Daisy Bates and made its way into a major African American newspaper Jet Magazine. However, this work was not easy, Ari faced major battles with team leaders of his organization, the Arkansas county school board, and other influential organizations. Despite these struggles, Ari was able to create an effective veterans assistance program, make a name for himself, and initiate great change outside the political office. The interview also discusses how Ari’s traumatic brain injury occurred and how it has impacted different aspects of his life. From there, Ari discusses his relationship with his children and how his son’s health helped them to develop a close relationship. Discussing reparations for veterans is an important part of the final interview. Ari continuously talks about the impediments he faces with organizations like N’COBRA, the IBW 21st century group. Because of all these different organizations influencing governmental policies and lobbying, competing visions for reparations emerged. Reconciliation and reparations are two important factors that must be evaluated in order to combat the struggles faced by all veterans. Although it is not a perfect solution, Ari mentions how it is an important first step. The interview concludes with Ari’s connection to his culture – how his name is a representation of his spirit: hard-working and determined – how Ari’s work has aided many veterans, and how hard veteran reparation struggles have been.
  
  The three interviews illuminate the determination of Ari Merretazon, among many other black veterans, to obtain reparations for the trauma and suffering they endured. As the war in Vietnam raged on, so did the war of racial inequality. Ari’s experiences and advocacy beyond Vietnam helped fuel his work with the V.A., reparations for racial division on institutional levels, and ensuring a sense of community and blood-love remained. Not only is this work essential to creating equitable conditions for the black community in all aspects of American society but for promoting equality in a public manner.
• 1 media/Bloods.jpg media/Ari Sesu Merretazon photo.jpeg 2023-07-19T15:21:16+00:00 A War on Two Fronts 28 Ari Sesu Merretazon part 1 image_header 139 2025-08-09T17:59:21+00:00

  Part 1

  The first interview with Ari Sesu Merretazon recounts his early life in Washington, D.C., with his family. Ari discusses how his parents, his upbringing, and the historical protests that occurred during his childhood shaped his outlook on the military and the United States. In 1966, Merretazon was drafted for the Vietnam War and served from 1966 to 1968.
  
  The protests surrounding civil rights, Dr. King's assassination, and racism significantly contributed to the division. Ari’s occupation in Vietnam was as a recon infantry soldier and emphasized ‘search, kill, and destroy’ missions. A major connection between soldiers within the war was the solidarity among Black soldiers. Ari emphasizes how the only way they survived was through their blood love. 95% of the stockade in Vietnam was Black soldiers, further enforcing solidarity. Ari also stated that this solidarity transferred into sympathy for the Vietnamese people. The power struggles made both groups gravitate towards each other. Search and destroy operations and measuring body counts were brutalizing and dehumanizing features of the American war in Vietnam. Black veterans leaving Vietnam in 1968 returned to a nation afire.

  Revelations

  Jason Higgins: Do you recall any reasons why your brothers discouraged you from joining the military?
  
  Ari Sesu Merretazon: They were very discouraged about the relationship of this country to African Americans. I have come out like the political house that we always talked about that. But we never did anything, protest together. It was individual protest based on the age, structure, and that type of thing. But, it was solid as a rock. It helped me to understand my environment at the time. I may have mentioned to you too that when I was about 10 years old, Jason, in fact, I mentioned in the first paragraph of the book Bloods with Chapter 7 with my story. I used to sit on a stoop which was right behind the Capitol East Businessmen's  Association which was relative to the intersection of 15 this Capitol. In about 60 feet there was a little two-step stoop. I will always come out, walk up to streets, sit there, and just reflect because that was the end of the bus stop for one of the D.C. transit lines. Basically, I would get a transfer and ride around the city because that was the end of the line to get transfers to your good. That's where I received a revelation. That I was going to war in prison. I think I was a 10 years old at the time. That was a very powerful revelation. I just knew that those two things were going to happen. As we moved through I decided not to – I fought it for a minutes minute because I didn't join with my partner. But nevertheless, the draft notice came, and it said, "You shall report, " and I reported down to Fort Holyberg and Baltimore, I think it was. Then from there to South Carolina, Fort Jackson. From Fort Jackson from all my infantry training base in AIT to Vietnam, from South Carolina to Vietnam.
  
  Jason Higgins: Now, whenever you got the draft notice were you aware of the Vietnam War? Was that on your mind did you think that you would be sent?
  
  Ari Sesu Merretazon: Yes. I was aware of the Vietnam War, and I knew I was going to be sent because, Jason, I hope I told you because while I was sitting on that stoop, I had the vision of going to war in prison.
  
  Jason Higgins: I read that this morning as I was preparing for the interview. I have a copy here. [OVERLAPPING] Yeah, that was very interesting. You had this revelation that you would go to war and prison in your life.
  
  Ari Sesu Merretazon: Prison, in that order. I didn't think I was doing anything to make it happen, but I was just living my life.

   

  Kill or Be Killed

  Jason Higgins: Was there any kind of solidarity or sympathy for the Vietnamese people between black soldiers in Vietnam?
  Ari Sesu Merretazon: Yeah, the Vietnamese people themselves made sure that occurred. The Vietnam people engaged us. We engaged them because we are the same in the context of power structures in this country, and our country, in the world. We were the same, and that's how we dealt with that. We gravitated towards them. They gravitated toward us just because they considered us the same, same. Just basic people, poor people that don't have no input in decision-making, [LAUGHTER] that type of thing and just dealing with their daily affairs. We turned their country into a major war zone, that mean village by village. We went in burned hutches, hootches, and things like that. That was the major mission search, kill and destroy. That's the attitude you had to have. If you didn't have the attitude and you're out, there really is no assurance that some bad is going to happen to you. That is of your own making cause you are not ready. We were always ready. Always ready.
  Jason Higgins: You're describing this kill-or-be-killed mentality.
  Ari Sesu Merretazon: This is war, man. Exactly, that's what it was. That's exactly what it was; now you know there's no other way to structure that; it was kill or be killed. ‘Cause when you charge into a village after we chase a VC into the village, usually, all hell breaks out, and a couple of times it did. On one occasion, my squad got caught right up in the middle of it. Let's see, one… two…three… three of us did survive. Then one just didn't have the courage at the time to fight.

  A Clear Racial Divide

  Jason: In the middle of trying to survive a war, did you form opinions about the rightness or the wrongness of the Vietnam War?
  
  Ari: Yes I did. I've formed it while I was in Vietnam. I was just a young 19 year old Gung Ho guy. I wanted to keep up with everybody, compete with everybody. But in Vietnam, there was a whole different thing. It was just like we going home. We got to make sure that we go home. That's our goal, is protect each other, so we can go home, back to the world, we would say. We would come out of the field some type of thing that we talked about when we came back off a mission. We were talking about what we're going to do when we got back in the world. We knew the dynamic in Vietnam between black and white soldiers. The racial divide was very clear. I think I might have mentioned to you, not to be repetitive, but 95 percent of the stockade in Vietnam was black soldiers. We call it LBJ because Lyndon Baines Johnson was the president at the time we call it LBJ. In fact, was in a lower part of the Vietnam called Long Bihn. We call it Long Bihn Jail, that was the stockade, 95 percent black soldiers.

  
  Full Interview, Part 1