Committee for the Defence of National Interests  The Committee for the Defence of National Interests (original name in French: "Comité pour la défense des intérêts nationaux"; abbreviated CDNI or CDIN) was an anti-communist right-wing political party founded in the Kingdom of Laos on 17 June 1958. Dismayed by the election of Lao communists to the National Assembly in the May 1958 elections, younger politicians and military officers founded CDNI as an alternative to older Lao politicians and senior officers then in power. The CDNI pronounced itself as a force for anti-corruption efforts in the Royal Lao Government. It was backed by the United States embassy; American support was manifested in political advice and civic actions such as Operation Booster Shot. In the 24 April 1960 elections, which were obviously rigged, the CDNI won 32 of 59 seats. The Pathet Lao leadership had been detained during the election; on 23 May 1960, they escaped to join their insurrection in the mountains. This ended the governing coalition, and fighting began in the Laotian Civil War. During the First Indochina War, on 23 December 1950, the United States government began providing military support to the French in French Protectorate of Laos in a war against local forces fighting for Laotian independence. The 1954 Geneva Conference ended the war and established a free Kingdom of Laos. Following Laotian independence, the United States continued support for the French-supported Royal Lao Government and the Royal Lao Army. In 1955, the US established both an aid program and a military mission. It also supplied political expertise to Lao right-wing politicians through such propaganda efforts as Operation Booster Shot, run by the Central Intelligence Agency and the US Air Force. The U.S. objective was prevention of a democratic communist takeover of a coalition government. In May 1958, the Kingdom of Laos held national elections. At stake were 21 seats being added to the National Assembly. Despite extensive American aid to rightist candidates, Pathet Lao communist candidates won nine seats; a party allied to them won another four. In reaction to the leftist victories, young conservative Lao politicians and military officers, as evidenced by their group's nickname of "les Jeunes" (the youngsters), formed the "Comite pour la Defense des Interets Nationaux" (Committee for the Defense of National Interests, or CDNI) on 17 June 1958. Many of them had been educated abroad, and traveled to other Asian nations, France, and the United States.