Asian

It was Congress that ultimately gave up on the Viet Nam War, rejecting the pleas of a Republican Administration for more military aid. It was Congress that suspended funds for the rebels fighting in Nicaragua, much to the dismay of the Reagan Administration. But in an emerging new debate, the roles seem to have been reversed. A drive has begun in Congress to provide military aid for the resistance forces opposing the occupation of Kampuchea by Vietnamese Communists, and now it is the Reagan Administration that is reluctant--at least so far.

Kampuchea, formerly known as Cambodia, came under the control of a Communist group, the Khmer Rouge, in 1975 after a five-year civil war. Their leader, Pol Pot, turned the country into a charnel house by directing a murderous drive to eliminate his opponents. Some 2 million people were killed. Three years later Vietnamese forces, backed by the Soviet Union, swept through the country, setting up a puppet government that both the U.S. and the U.N. refuse to recognize. In addition to the Khmer Rouge, whose 35,000 guerrillas are supported by China, the armed opposition to the current regime includes two non-Communist groups: one led by Son Sann, the other led in absentia by the exiled Prince Norodom Sihanouk.

Military supplies and funding for this unlikely coalition of resistance groups has come largely from China and from a pro-Western organization, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and the Philippines. Pressure on the Administration to provide U.S. aid has been spearheaded by Congressman Stephen Solarz, a New York Democrat. A strong foe of funding the contras in Nicaragua, Solarz considers the two non-Communist resistance groups in Kampuchea the real "freedom fighters." He helped persuade the House Foreign Affairs Committee to recommend $5 million in aid to those groups.

Son Sann and Prince Norodom Ranariddh, son of Prince Sihanouk, traveled to Washington last week to seek Administration approval for such an appropriation. Said Son Sann after meeting with Secretary of State George Shultz: "I am sure the U.S. will come to our aid. I ask for assistance, not U.S. troops." Shultz reportedly made no commitments, but Son Sann said that he was assured by the Secretary that he was "among friends."

"Military assistance," a State Department spokesman said last week, "is neither necessary nor desirable under current circumstances." Still, the congressional backing gives the Administration flexibility to provide more direct military aid in the future. Said another State Department official: "We are delighted that the initiative came from Congress."