Kim A. Wagner
@kimatiwagner.bsky.social
Historian of empire, violence and atrocity photography - currently writing about the My Lai Massacre.
Latest book: 'Massacre in the Clouds - An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History' (PublicAffairs, 2024)
London - Wylie Agency
Latest book: 'Massacre in the Clouds - An American Atrocity and the Erasure of History' (PublicAffairs, 2024)
London - Wylie Agency
Pinned
'There was a map of Vietnam on the wall of my apartment in Saigon and some nights, coming back late to the city, I'd lie out on my bed and look at it, too tired to do anything more than just get my boots off.'
Michael Herr, Dispatches
Finally got an old French map of my own...
Michael Herr, Dispatches
Finally got an old French map of my own...
Currently visiting Ron Haeberle - the army photographer who took the images at My Lai in 1968 - and nothing could really have prepared me for seeing the original 35mm slides in person.
November 10, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Currently visiting Ron Haeberle - the army photographer who took the images at My Lai in 1968 - and nothing could really have prepared me for seeing the original 35mm slides in person.
Good to know that Samar, My Lai and Abu Ghraib were all *departures* from the American way of making war.
Some weapons-grade US exceptionalism (i.e. acute historical amnesia) from Jonathan Horn here...😑
www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
Some weapons-grade US exceptionalism (i.e. acute historical amnesia) from Jonathan Horn here...😑
www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
November 8, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Good to know that Samar, My Lai and Abu Ghraib were all *departures* from the American way of making war.
Some weapons-grade US exceptionalism (i.e. acute historical amnesia) from Jonathan Horn here...😑
www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
Some weapons-grade US exceptionalism (i.e. acute historical amnesia) from Jonathan Horn here...😑
www.wsj.com/opinion/sple...
Reposted by Kim A. Wagner
October 28, 2025 at 10:16 AM
The youngest wanted to be an android geisha for Halloween - one more addition to the collection...
October 25, 2025 at 2:04 PM
The youngest wanted to be an android geisha for Halloween - one more addition to the collection...
Well, that's exciting - Michael Mann working on a new Vietnam war movie:
October 19, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Well, that's exciting - Michael Mann working on a new Vietnam war movie:
Reposted by Kim A. Wagner
During the Philippine–American War, the US Army’s massacre of between 600 and 1,200 civilians made for “sensational news in the United States when it was first reported…. Eventually the event disappeared from popular consciousness and barely figured in popular accounts.” —Vicente L. Rafael
Massacre Under the Starry Flag | Vicente L. Rafael
The history of a single photograph reveals how an atrocity in the Philippines was forgotten by its American perpetrators.
buff.ly
October 11, 2025 at 11:11 AM
During the Philippine–American War, the US Army’s massacre of between 600 and 1,200 civilians made for “sensational news in the United States when it was first reported…. Eventually the event disappeared from popular consciousness and barely figured in popular accounts.” —Vicente L. Rafael
More people were killed during the Bud Dajo Massacre in 1906 than at Wounded Knee and My Lai combined - and yet this American atrocity has been largely forgotten.
Review of my book 'Massacre in the Clouds' by @vrafael82.bsky.social in @nybooks.com:
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Review of my book 'Massacre in the Clouds' by @vrafael82.bsky.social in @nybooks.com:
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Massacre Under the Starry Flag | Vicente L. Rafael
The history of a single photograph reveals how an atrocity in the Philippines was forgotten by its American perpetrators.
www.nybooks.com
October 3, 2025 at 4:50 PM
More people were killed during the Bud Dajo Massacre in 1906 than at Wounded Knee and My Lai combined - and yet this American atrocity has been largely forgotten.
Review of my book 'Massacre in the Clouds' by @vrafael82.bsky.social in @nybooks.com:
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Review of my book 'Massacre in the Clouds' by @vrafael82.bsky.social in @nybooks.com:
www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Just bought this on Ebay for $5 - Alfred (of 'Mad Magazine' fame) as Lt. Calley, 'National Lampoon', August 1971
September 30, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Just bought this on Ebay for $5 - Alfred (of 'Mad Magazine' fame) as Lt. Calley, 'National Lampoon', August 1971
If only someone had written a book about this particular form of historical erasure...🤔
September 26, 2025 at 7:08 AM
If only someone had written a book about this particular form of historical erasure...🤔
My current project on the My Lai Massacre is heavily influenced by the polyphonic structure of 'Rashomon'/'In the Grove' - and it's quite reassuring to find that contemporaries themselves drew that comparison. This commentary is from December 1969, just after the story first broke:
September 22, 2025 at 11:18 AM
My current project on the My Lai Massacre is heavily influenced by the polyphonic structure of 'Rashomon'/'In the Grove' - and it's quite reassuring to find that contemporaries themselves drew that comparison. This commentary is from December 1969, just after the story first broke:
Not really a fan of Chomsky, but he was quite perceptive and clearly ahead of his time when he denounced the use of 'remote-controlled unmanned aircraft' in 1970, during the Vietnam War...
September 22, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Not really a fan of Chomsky, but he was quite perceptive and clearly ahead of his time when he denounced the use of 'remote-controlled unmanned aircraft' in 1970, during the Vietnam War...
As a historian, writing about the past - no matter how violent or horrific - increasingly feels like escapism...
September 18, 2025 at 8:09 AM
As a historian, writing about the past - no matter how violent or horrific - increasingly feels like escapism...
My approach to research these days is to read absolutely everything I can put my hands on that will help me get the 'feel' of an event or time-period right.
Next up is Jean Larteguy's (author of 'The Centurions') fictionalised account of the disappearance of Sean Flynn in Cambodia in 1970...
Next up is Jean Larteguy's (author of 'The Centurions') fictionalised account of the disappearance of Sean Flynn in Cambodia in 1970...
September 13, 2025 at 8:31 AM
My approach to research these days is to read absolutely everything I can put my hands on that will help me get the 'feel' of an event or time-period right.
Next up is Jean Larteguy's (author of 'The Centurions') fictionalised account of the disappearance of Sean Flynn in Cambodia in 1970...
Next up is Jean Larteguy's (author of 'The Centurions') fictionalised account of the disappearance of Sean Flynn in Cambodia in 1970...
I'm listening to the Lewellen recording of the pilot communication at My Lai for the first time. In the background, you can hear the wop-wop-wop of the Huy choppers and follow the progress of the operation minute by minute.
Is there any other massacre in history that was audio-recorded live?
Is there any other massacre in history that was audio-recorded live?
September 12, 2025 at 8:59 AM
I'm listening to the Lewellen recording of the pilot communication at My Lai for the first time. In the background, you can hear the wop-wop-wop of the Huy choppers and follow the progress of the operation minute by minute.
Is there any other massacre in history that was audio-recorded live?
Is there any other massacre in history that was audio-recorded live?
What's the best audio-to-text converter?
September 10, 2025 at 7:34 AM
What's the best audio-to-text converter?
Question for the law peeps: is it a war crime, technically speaking, if there is no armed conflict?
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
JD Vance doesn’t ‘give a s***’ if you think Venezuela boat strike was a war crime
US military killed 11 people on a boat that Trump claims was operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua
www.independent.co.uk
September 7, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Question for the law peeps: is it a war crime, technically speaking, if there is no armed conflict?
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
What in the liberal exceptionalism is this?
September 6, 2025 at 2:28 PM
What in the liberal exceptionalism is this?
I have been looking forward to @tommenger.bsky.social's book on colonial warfare for some time now, and it's amazing to see that it's finally out. A must for anyone who's interested in the study of violence in a transimperial comparative framework...
Publication day! My book The Colonial Way of War has finally appeared with CUP. The book is the first comparative & transimperial study of the violence of colonial warfare around 1900, based on an extensive empirical base &case studies from the British, German & Dutch Empire. It... shorturl.at/crWw2
The Colonial Way of War
Cambridge Core - Global History - The Colonial Way of War
shorturl.at
September 5, 2025 at 2:18 PM
I have been looking forward to @tommenger.bsky.social's book on colonial warfare for some time now, and it's amazing to see that it's finally out. A must for anyone who's interested in the study of violence in a transimperial comparative framework...
Reposted by Kim A. Wagner
Tom Menger's new book is out now - with @kimatiwagner.bsky.social blurb "In The Colonial Way of War, Menger presents a masterclass in transimperial history", congrats @tommenger.bsky.social!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
The Colonial Way of War
Cambridge Core - Global History - The Colonial Way of War
www.cambridge.org
September 5, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Tom Menger's new book is out now - with @kimatiwagner.bsky.social blurb "In The Colonial Way of War, Menger presents a masterclass in transimperial history", congrats @tommenger.bsky.social!
www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
www.cambridge.org/core/books/c...
This post inadvertently reveals exactly why war studies is a marginalised and often parochial academic field. Just imagine a historian studying genocide in order to learn how to do it better - and lacking the self-awareness to realise that this is what they're doing...
Why is it so hard to study war seriously in American academia? From Clausewitz to West Point’s new major, I dive into the fragmentation, disappearance, and possible revival of war as a subject of tactical, operational, and political thought. My Latest⬇️
The "War Studies" Problem
The Challenges of a Disciplinary Approach to a Multidisciplinary Problem
secretaryrofdefenserock.substack.com
September 4, 2025 at 7:26 AM
This post inadvertently reveals exactly why war studies is a marginalised and often parochial academic field. Just imagine a historian studying genocide in order to learn how to do it better - and lacking the self-awareness to realise that this is what they're doing...
How long till the old 'bullets-dipped-in-pigs'-blood' story makes a come-back? 😑
September 3, 2025 at 5:51 AM
How long till the old 'bullets-dipped-in-pigs'-blood' story makes a come-back? 😑
Reposted by Kim A. Wagner
This implies that fascism in Germany somehow came from the outside, like an illness invading the body. This notion victimizes the perpetrators, veiling that fascism actually was built on a long history of antisemitism, nationalism, militarism etc. and on a lot of complicity.
1/
1/
This hits harder than when I saw this movie the first time.
#CaptainAmerica
#CaptainAmerica
September 3, 2025 at 5:47 AM
This implies that fascism in Germany somehow came from the outside, like an illness invading the body. This notion victimizes the perpetrators, veiling that fascism actually was built on a long history of antisemitism, nationalism, militarism etc. and on a lot of complicity.
1/
1/
Private Eye wasn't pulling any punches during the Vietnam War - Feb, 1968.
September 1, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Private Eye wasn't pulling any punches during the Vietnam War - Feb, 1968.
'There was a map of Vietnam on the wall of my apartment in Saigon and some nights, coming back late to the city, I'd lie out on my bed and look at it, too tired to do anything more than just get my boots off.'
Michael Herr, Dispatches
Finally got an old French map of my own...
Michael Herr, Dispatches
Finally got an old French map of my own...
September 1, 2025 at 12:03 PM
'There was a map of Vietnam on the wall of my apartment in Saigon and some nights, coming back late to the city, I'd lie out on my bed and look at it, too tired to do anything more than just get my boots off.'
Michael Herr, Dispatches
Finally got an old French map of my own...
Michael Herr, Dispatches
Finally got an old French map of my own...
You know your book project is going well when the research material requires its own piece of furniture...
August 31, 2025 at 5:53 PM
You know your book project is going well when the research material requires its own piece of furniture...