Spring 2027

The Vietnam Wars

The Vietnam Wars explores the prolonged cycle of conflicts in Vietnam and neighboring regions from 1940 to the present, integrating local and U.S. perspectives on this era.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 8

Past student reviews · Alfred McCoy

Assessment consisted of one midterm, one final, and a 15-page paper.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Discuss the major events of the Vietnam conflict from multiple perspectives and viewpoints, including ordinary American soldiers, Vietnamese villagers, Hanoi’s military leaders, and White House insiders.

  • Describe this great crisis in U.S. foreign policy and the complexities of contemporary history.

  • Analyze critically U.S. government decision-making.

  • Explain the global process of decolonization - marked by nationalism, communism, and insurgency - that transformed empires which once covered 40 percent of the earth’s land area into a hundred new nations.

  • Describe the character of the Cold War that divided the world for nearly a half century.

  • Assess significant works in the Historiography of the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
ASIAN/HISTORY 319

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ALFRED W. MCCOY is recorded teaching in Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Alfred McCoy

Alfred McCoy taught fast-paced, lecture-based classes with a strong passion for the subject matter, which students found engaging and top-notch.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2022: 3.79 GPA, 94.6% A/AB (n=56 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.83 GPA, 91.5% A/AB (n=59 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.62 GPA, 81.1% A/AB (n=53 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Alfred McCoy

Assessment consisted of one midterm, one final, and a 15-page paper.

Past student reviews · Alfred McCoy

One student found the discussion section with T.A. Sinae Hyun frustrating, noting she expected more than reasonable for a 300-level class.

Topics

  • Wars in Vietnam and neighboring regions (1940–present)
  • Global decolonization, nationalism, and the rise of new nations
  • The Cold War and its division of the world
  • U.S. foreign policy crises and contemporary history

Skills

  • Critical analysis of government decision-making
  • Multi-perspective historical discussion
  • Historiographical assessment

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
[]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "a6cfc0e35ebb8e7e51c33a93e572ecba00177fd34468ffe427084e0508444359",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}