In early 1954, Cẩn established core groups of supporters inside the Army and civil service of the State of Vietnam.

In southern Vietnam, Nhu established a group which served mainly as a roundtable for political debates of intellectuals linked to a journal entitled "Spirit" (Vietnamese: Tinh Thần).

In 1953, Nhu allied with Trần Quốc Bửu, a trade unionist who headed the Vietnamese Confederation of Labour with tens of thousands of members.

They began to publish a journal called "Society" (Vietnamese: Xã hội), which endorsed the creation of workers' and farmers' cooperatives and unionization rights for industrial laborers in Saigon.

[8] According to Miller, the name "Cần Lao" shows Nhu's profound concern in political potential of Vietnamese labors which related to French unionist ideology.

[2] From April 1952, Nhu's ideas on Personalism were delineated in his speech at Vietnamese National Military Academy in Đà Lat.

He contended that, initially, Personalism was a Catholic ideology, though it had universal relevance and was compatible to Vietnam, which had to suffer from the devastation of wars.

Simultaneously, Diệm's regime laid down as a policy the teaching of Personalism in universities and the propaganda of the doctrine in South Vietnam.

It also included any factors that could help its agents to penetrate the army, national assembly, police, educational system and the media.

Ngô Đình Nhu was the general secretary of the Central Committee Board including Trần Trung Dung, Nguyễn Tăng Nguyên, Lý Trung Dung, Hà Đức Minh, Trần Quốc Bửu, Võ Như Nguyện and Lê Văn Đông.

[22] The party also declared the goals of struggling for the revolutionary ideology: Personalism; constructing the nation in four aspects: spirit, society, politics and economy.

On 2 October 1955, Nhu established the National Revolutionary Movement (Vietnamese: Phong trào cách mạng quốc gia) including party members and nominated Trần Chánh Thành, Minister of Information, as its president.

On 29 October 1955, Diệm promulgated the decree 4-TPP to establish the first government, which embraced most of the Can Lao party's members in key positions.