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
Spent veteran's day with Ron Haeberle and a group of Vietnam veterans at a high school in Ohio. I'm still trying to make sense of the particular brand of popular politics that instills unquestionable pride in military service *and* at the same time acknowledges what happened at My Lai...
November 12, 2025 at 5:17 PM
Spent veteran's day with Ron Haeberle and a group of Vietnam veterans at a high school in Ohio. I'm still trying to make sense of the particular brand of popular politics that instills unquestionable pride in military service *and* at the same time acknowledges what happened at My Lai...
'World' is doing a lot of work here...
November 12, 2025 at 2:56 PM
'World' is doing a lot of work here...
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...
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:
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...
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?
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...
Giving away my old hardcopy of Hobson-Jobson feels like a final step away from studying British colonial India...
August 29, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Giving away my old hardcopy of Hobson-Jobson feels like a final step away from studying British colonial India...
It's not as if historians have studied the dynamics of rumours for more than half a century or anything like that...🤦♂️
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
August 28, 2025 at 2:43 PM
It's not as if historians have studied the dynamics of rumours for more than half a century or anything like that...🤦♂️
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
I bought a small plastic 'pagoda' on Temu for £4 and turned it into a Rashomon nightlight.
August 17, 2025 at 5:04 PM
I bought a small plastic 'pagoda' on Temu for £4 and turned it into a Rashomon nightlight.
Just finished the first draft of the first part of my current book - it's just the prologue, but still...
Here I'm setting the scene for what happens in March of 1968, which includes everyone from Michael Herr to James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Jefferson Airplane and the Chicago 7 etc. etc.
Here I'm setting the scene for what happens in March of 1968, which includes everyone from Michael Herr to James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Jefferson Airplane and the Chicago 7 etc. etc.
August 17, 2025 at 11:27 AM
Just finished the first draft of the first part of my current book - it's just the prologue, but still...
Here I'm setting the scene for what happens in March of 1968, which includes everyone from Michael Herr to James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Jefferson Airplane and the Chicago 7 etc. etc.
Here I'm setting the scene for what happens in March of 1968, which includes everyone from Michael Herr to James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Jefferson Airplane and the Chicago 7 etc. etc.
Thanks AI, explaining how race riots in March of 1968 were triggered by the assassination of MLK in April of that year really helped clearing up some things for me...
August 13, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Thanks AI, explaining how race riots in March of 1968 were triggered by the assassination of MLK in April of that year really helped clearing up some things for me...
It's been almost 60 years since the My Lai Massacre, and I see that we're still trauma-washing atrocities by focusing on the 'suffering' of the perpetrators...
August 10, 2025 at 10:40 AM
It's been almost 60 years since the My Lai Massacre, and I see that we're still trauma-washing atrocities by focusing on the 'suffering' of the perpetrators...
AI-update - to avoid the confusion between image and text, I asked Google Genesis to produce the same timeline as in my original prompt (1885-1945), but this time without any words...🤷♂️
August 8, 2025 at 10:52 AM
AI-update - to avoid the confusion between image and text, I asked Google Genesis to produce the same timeline as in my original prompt (1885-1945), but this time without any words...🤷♂️