 In the backcountry the U.S. could fully utilize its superiority in firepower and mobility to bleed the enemy in set-piece battles.The cleaning-out of the NLF and the pacification of the villages would be the responsibility of the South Vietnamese military.The adoption of this strategy, however, brought Westmoreland into direct conflict with his Marine Corps commander, General Lewis W. Walt, who had already recognized the security of the villages as the key to success.