Ngo Dinh Nhu was the younger brother and chief political advisor of South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Ðình Diệm. Although he held no formal executive position, he wielded immense unofficial power, exercising personal command of both the ARVN Special Forces (a paramilitary unit which served as the Ngô family's de facto private army) and the Cần Lao political apparatus (also known as the Personalist Labor Party) which served as the regime's de facto secret police. He was opium addicted, and along with his family, was heavily corrupted.