The IV Andreotti government was the first government to obtain external support from the PCI: on 16 March 1978 the President of the D.C. Aldo Moro was kidnapped and his escort was murdered in Via Fani, in Rome. At that time, Ruffini as Minister of Defence took part in the C.I.S. (Inter-ministerial Security Committee). Chaired by the then Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, it was composed of the heads of various Dicasteries, among which was the Dicastery chaired by Ruffini. From the moment of the Moro kidnapping, the Committee met weekly for the duration of the fifty-five days of the kidnapping.