As the United States government began supporting the French effort in the First Indochina War, it needed a secretive organization to support the Royal Lao Government (RLG) and its armed forces in its fight against North Vietnamese invaders. The purportedly civilian Programs Evaluation Office (PEO) sprang into being in December 1955 to offset a communist insurgency. It would be superseded by the Requirements Office (RO) during President John F. Kennedy's term of office. Thus, when the decision was made to train up and improve the Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF) to help prosecute the Laotian Civil War, the precedent had been set for covert support of the mission.