 The scholar Bernard B. Fall stated that " there is not the slightest doubt that this plebiscite was only a shade more fraudulent than most electoral tests under a dictatorship " . The American journalist Stanley Karnow cited the dubious plebiscite as evidence of Diệm 's " mandarin mentality " . Chapman wrote that " ... no amount of unilateral campaigning , anti @-@ Bảo Đại sentiment , or Confucian political restraint could explain Diệm 's 98 percent margin of victory in a politically heterogeneous South Vietnam . Corruption and intimidation must have played a significant role . " Buttinger said that while the monarchy was " another rotten relic of Vietnam 's past " and Bảo Đại " its last , unworthy representative " , fraud and intimidation were unnecessary as Diệm would have won easily in any event . Historian David Anderson said the victory " was not a true representation of Diệm 's power or popularity . The emperor 's weakness , the disarray of the political opposition , and other such factors explain his triumph " . 
