 Diệm ran a personal attack campaign against the head of state, for whom campaigning was prohibited. The army and national police went about enforcing the ban on pro-Bảo Đại and anti-Diệm activities. Police went from door to door, explaining the consequences of failing to vote. They organized conferences in rural villages and addressed the populace with loudspeakers. In general, Diệm's line of attack was to portray Bảo Đại as a drunken womanizer who was preoccupied with immoral pleasures and unconcerned with the problems of the populace. Vietnam's monarchic tradition was built on Confucianism and the emperor's Mandate of Heaven, and Diệm's campaign claimed Bảo Đại had lost this mandate through his debauched lifestyle. According to Joseph Buttinger, who was based in Vietnam as the second in command at the International Rescue Committee, the methods used to influence the poll were "outrageous". Donald Lancaster, a journalist who covered the poll, said "Whereas Bao Dai was given no opportunity to defend himself, the government-controlled press proceeded to overwhelm him with scurrilous abuse." Diệm later banned Bảo Đại from entering the State of Vietnam.
