Undersecretary of State, first for Public Education and then for Treasury, office confirmed also in the Rumor IV government. In 1976 he was appointed Minister of Transport in the Andreotti III Government and the following year he took on the interim position as Minister of Merchant Navy. In 1977 he was appointed Minister of Defense, a position that also held in later governments Andreotti IV and V. 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. On 10 August 1978, together with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior Rognoni, he signed the decree appointing General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa to head the coordination of activities against terrorism and organized crime. Massimo Ciancimino, in the book dedicated to his father Vito Ciancimino, accused Ruffini of having been in contact with mafia circles. The same book presented a letter from Vito Ciancimino to Ruffini in reference to an interview published on L'Ora on 13 January 1980, in which Ruffini rejected the accusations of mafia connivance. Massimo Ciancimino was arrested on charges of aggravated slander against former police chief Gianni De Gennaro for the statements made by Ciancimino himself on the relationship between the mafia and politics. In the Cossiga I government, in 1980, Ruffini was first confirmed Minister of Defence and subsequently appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs until April 1980. During that same period, he held the office of current President of the Council of the European Community. He did not run again for the 1987 general election, dedicating himself again to his professional activity until 1994. Attilio Ruffini died in Rome on 23 June 2011. References External links Attilio Ruffini at Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Attilio Ruffini at Radio Radicale 1924 births 2011 deaths Politicians from Mantua Christian Democracy (Italy) politicians 20th-century Italian politicians Foreign ministers of Italy Italian Ministers of Defence Transport ministers of Italy