Nhuận’s dismay with Thiệu climaxed during the national elections of 1971, when Thiệu resorted to the same dirty tricks Kỳ tried to use in 1967. Thiệu, however, was so successful in rigging the presidential election that the other candidates withdrew in protest. Thiệu ran unopposed and was elected, but his power grab dealt a fatal blow to South Vietnam’s nascent democracy and helped revive the insurgency. But Thiệu was unrepentant; the North was planning a spring offensive and his only concern was security; so he imposed further restrictions on the independent media and political parties.
After the election, Thieu appointed CIO chief Nguyễn Khắc Bình Bình to the post of Director General of the National Police. Brigadier General Nguyễn Văn Giàu was put in charge of Security (Phụ Tá An-Ninh), and thereafter managed (among other things) the Phụng Hoàng program, the Police Plan, and the Security Service (An-Ninh Cảnh-Lực).
Binh militarized the National Police in style and substance, and Nhuận was again demoted to deputy chief of Region II, this time under Lt-Colonel Nguyễn Hữu Hải. There were rumors that the new II Corps commander, Lieutenant General Ngô Dzu, was involved in drug trafficking and rice speculation, but there was also a rumor (apparently spread by Dzu), that the CIA officials in Bình-Định Province were involved in marijuana smuggling.
Nhuận suspected the CIA was involved in a related undercover…