Phillips replied: "Well, I don't like to contradict General Krulak, but I have to tell you, Mr. President, that we're not winning the war, particularly in the delta. The troops are paralysed, they're in the barracks, and this is what is actually going on in one province that's right next to Saigon."[18] Phillips asserted that removing Nhu was the only way to improve the situation.[3] Phillips asserted that the only means of removing Nhu was to bring in Colonel Edward Lansdale,[18] the CIA operative who had consolidated Diệm's position a decade earlier,[19] a proposal that Kennedy dismissed.