It’s easy to take Springside Chestnut Hill Academy’s past for granted. From the breathtaking beauty of the chapel’s stained glass windows to the elegant exterior of the Inn, the SCH Community is constantly reminded of the school’s lengthy history. Even while Springside Chestnut Hill itself may be less than two decades old, the two schools that merged to form it — Springside School for Girls and Chestnut Hill Academy — each boast an impressive history dating back to the nineteenth century. As a result of both schools’ incredible pasts, SCH’s alumni have grown into an incredible group of accomplished individuals, each with their own unique paths following graduation. One such alumnus, Ted Hammett ’63, recently spoke to the SCH junior class in an effort to share his personal story. As a veteran of the Vietnam War who would later look to “atone for his sins” in the country he was deployed in, Hammett shared a unique perspective and aimed to help SCH juniors understand the Vietnam War’s historical significance.
Even though he was convinced that the war in Vietnam was morally wrong and strategically misguided by the spring of his junior year in college, Hammett ’63 enlisted in the Marine Corps after being pressured to do so by his father, a former Marine himself. If he had not enlisted in the Marine Corps, he would have been disowned by his father. “He wanted me to do what he had done,” said Hammet. While enlisted, Hammett served as a supply officer in the Quang Tri Province. Even though he never saw any combat action personally, Hammett was still exposed to the horrors of the Vietnam War and grew to understand how deadly the conflict had become for both sides by the time he had finished his tour. By the time that his tour had been completed, his unfavorable outlook on the war had been fortified.
Fifty years after the war ended, Hammett still finds himself impacted by his experiences in Vietnam. He has spent a considerable amount of time back in the nation he helped fight a war against, for both personal and professional purposes. During his first trip to Vietnam as a tourist after the war in 1997, Hammett immediately formed a connection with the nation. “I just really loved being there immediately,” he said. Later, he would return as a professional and make important contributions to the fight against HIV in Vietnam, providing technical assistance to the Vietnam Ministry of Health. In what Hammett referred to as his second tour, he would spend years not only interacting with the people of a nation he had fought a war against but also aiming to protect their community through his work on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
During these years in Vietnam, Hammett grew to understand the Vietnamese people in a variety of ways. Even with the history of the two countries, Hammett found that the Vietnamese people generally viewed the American people and culture in a positive light, despite limited exposure to the realities of American life. “They love New York City. They haven’t been to New York City, most of them, but they think New York City is great,” said Hammett. “I like seeing it because it’s nice that people like your country, or like your country’s culture, or whatever it is. Not that we’re always deserving of being liked.”
Hammett also noted that the Vietnamese are an incredibly patriotic people. Reflecting on his recent experience attending a parade thrown in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the “American War” in Ho Chi Minh City, he stated, “The crowds were unbelievable so that I couldn’t get anywhere near the parade route. I mean the streets were just filled with people. The entire downtown and all of them wearing Vietnamese flag t-shirts, Vietnamese flags, these little bracelets ‘I love Vietnam.’ ”
Even as an incredibly patriotic nation, many of the Vietnamese people have grown to distrust their government over the years. Currently, Vietnam has a one-party government, with the Communist Party of Vietnam holding all major government positions in the nation. Hammett claimed, “They’ve got some internal political issues, but they love their country.”
Hammett noted that music had a powerful influence on the way that he experienced his thirteen months in Vietnam. In his book Entwined with Vietnam, he reflects on the way that music shaped his perspective on the war. “It began to dawn on me that if this and the other songs I was listening to were right, then the war must be wrong,” wrote Hammett.
Even while many of his artists of choice, like Bob Dylan, never directly mentioned the war in their art, they still shifted his perspective. “There were some that may have been implicitly about the war in Vietnam, but none that were explicitly about the war in Vietnam, and so to say that, if the songs were right, the war must be wrong. It’s more general. It’s just, it’s sort of the general vibe of the music. And even if it wasn’t specifically or explicitly about the war, it would lead one to be or led me to be against the war,” said Hammett.
“Almost every Vietnam veteran you speak to talks about the importance of the music, ” said Hammett. He also believes that the advancement of music technology during the period between World War 2 and the Vietnam War impacted vets’ experiences during the war. When comparing World War 2 to Vietnam, Hammett said, “There certainly weren’t reel-to-reel tapes that you could get and play that had music. My girlfriend sent me incredible tapes that, you know, reel-to-reel music, tapes that I listened to constantly.”
Hammett believes that his experiences in and perspectives of the Vietnam War may have shaped his interpretation of the music he was listening to. “One’s perspective might be very different from what the artist intended, you know, how you take it and why it’s important to you, may be very different from why it’s important to the artist,” stated Hammett.
Bob Dylan in particular has continued to shape Hammett’s perspective on the war. In 2011, during his time in Vietnam, Hammett saw Bob Dylan perform in Ho Chi Minh City. Considering Dylan’s dramatic impact on the experiences of countless soldiers in Vietnam during the war, Hammett expected Dylan to speak to the crowd and felt disappointment when he didn’t.“He didn’t say anything. Literally said nothing the entire concert,” said Hammett.
Now, more than 60 years after his graduation from Chestnut Hill Academy and 50 years after the end of the war in Vietnam, Hammett chooses to speak at SCH to share his perspectives on the war. “I think it is a really important story in American history that we have not yet really learned the lessons of as well as we should have. For that reason alone, I think it is a story that needs to be told, and retold, and retold, and retold, because it was really central to some really important developments in our history.”
