This class was honestly very enjoyable and doable. There are two RP's which are just 400 words covering any week's material of your choice. Make sure you focus on quality and follow the prompt, you will be fine. There is one OP ED which is 500 words and can be done easily with proper planning of what topic/perspective you wanna cover. Midterm and final were bluebook, gives a study guide, again follow the prompts and you will do fine. This class is all preparation, planning, and following prompts. Lectures are actually engaging and attendance mandatory. we cover interesting topics and i would definitely take another class with Professor Kim, truly a great, humble, and helpful person whenever you need help throughout the quarter.

Professor Kim is one of the most engaging teachers I have had. Not only was the content engaging but so were his lecture slides and speaking style, often joking and making the content relatable. The courseload was manageable, with a couple reflection papers where he provides measurable feedback to improve on later papers. The midterm and final were very manageable with study guides ahead of time which reflected the content of the exam. Professor Kim is very kind and helpful as well as accommodating when students need it. I would highly recommend this class and professor.

The course was difficult, albeit manageable with appropriate effort, and rewarding. There are three reading reflections (approximately 500 words each) spaced throughout the term, a 600-word op-ed, and both a midterm and final exam—each entirely written, with no multiple-choice questions. For the midterm and final, Professor Kim provides study guides, which were initially around 50ish terms and prompt However, after receiving student feedback, he made the final study guide more manageable by reducing the number of terms to around 30.
Attendance and participation are mandatory, though participation is a relatively easy requirement to meet—asking and answering a few questions in class is usually sufficient. The format and lectures are fairly standard, but the true difficulty lies in the course's information density. You will get lost if you don’t keep up with the readings.
Professor Kim was kind and responsive, showing a willingness to listen and adapt the course throughout the quarter. He dropped the lowest reading reflection grade and lightened the study load for the final compared to the midterm.

I think this class was great. It was by no means a super easy A, but I think that was mostly because of somewhat inconsistent grading between the TA and the Professor. Professor Kim is a wonderful lecturer who I cannot recommend enough. He is engaging and ensures nothing gets dragged on for too long. If you put in the work, you can do well.

To be quite honest, this class is not easy, but it does not deserve the negative reviews it gets. Professor Kim is very a dedicated professor, who really tries to make the best teaching environment he can with his students. Also, he is pretty funny and keeps lecture interesting. That being said, you do need to try. If you meet with him during office hours, he is more than happy to work with you to try to accommodate you. But, he has high standards for this class, so it is one you need to put in effort for. If you are just looking for an easy history class, this is not the one for you, but if you are willing to put effort, you do really walk away learning a lot from this class. Not being a history major made it a little harder to see the expectations of how to approach this class, but overtime you can figure it out, and I really did enjoy taking this class.

While there are some negative reviews for Professor Kim, I think that he is actually a solid professor. The class is well-organized and has clear expectations, grading is fair (not an "easy A" but definitely feasible with hard work and engagement), and the lectures are interesting (you definitely will learn something of value). Overall, I would recommend the class for anyone passionate about US diplomatic history and wants to improve their historical analysis and writing skills.

For more nitty-gritty details, class participation was 10% (in-person attendance required plus occasional asking/answering questions which felt very manageable), two response papers were 15% each, and in-person, handwritten final (like classic bluebook set-up) were each 20% of the final grade. There were a decent amount of readings but nothing above what would be expected of an upper-div history class. Also, study guides (which were actually insanely helpful) were provided a week before both the midterm and the final.