Hilsman became one of the main architects of American policy in Vietnam during the early 1960s and in January 1962 presented the plan "A Strategic Concept for South Vietnam." It stated that the war was primarily a political struggle and proposed policies that emphasized that the Vietnamese in rural areas were the key to victory. It also recommended for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam to start using guerrilla tactics. Out of the report came Kennedy's approval of American participation in the Strategic Hamlet Program, the relocation of rural peasants into villages consolidated and reshaped to create a defensible, networked perimeter, with the goal of removing population from contact and influence with the Viet Cong. The implementation of the program by the South Vietnamese government became problematic, however, and Hilsman later stated that its execution was a "total misunderstanding of what the Hamlet program should try to do."