The PAVN/VC effort to regain control of the countryside was somewhat more successful. According to the U.S. State Department the VC "made pacification virtually inoperative. In the Mekong Delta the Viet Cong was stronger now than ever and in other regions the countryside belongs to the VC." General Wheeler reported that the offensive had brought counterinsurgency programs to a halt and "that to a large extent, the VC now controlled the countryside". This state of affairs did not last; heavy casualties and the backlash of the South Vietnamese and Americans resulted in more territorial losses and heavy casualties.