The Border Defense Command sat with anguish on the horns of, the dilemma. A "Top Secret" document of October 1969 showed the essence of its discomfiture. "Border defense units," it said, "have encountered difficulties" because Red Khmer troops often fled into the Viet Cong's wooded lairs. When they did so, the Royal Cambodians followed, to fell the trees in an effort to expose the rebels./ The receding forests opened both the Cambodian and Vietnamese Communists to attack from Allied air. The Command's solution was twofold -- first, teach the Red Khmers better to hide their bivouacs; second, bribe the Royal Cambodians to stop clearing the woods