 Initially, there were pledges of support from other regiments (the 27th Dragoons, the 94th Infantry, the 7th Algerian Tirailleurs and several Marine infantry units), but these seem to have reflected the views of senior officers only and there was no active participation.The head of the Parisian police, Maurice Papon, and the director of the "Sûreté nationale", formed a crisis cell in a room of the Comédie-Française, where Charles de Gaulle was attending a presentation of Racine's "Britannicus".The president was informed during the "entracte" of the coup by Jacques Foccart, his general secretary of African and Malagasy Affairs and closest collaborator, in charge of covert operations.