What was going on when I was born?

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1984 Companies National Intergroup has agreed to merge with Bergen Brunswig, a drug and electronics wholesaler. National, a steel company seeking to redeploy its assets, said it would be acquired in a stock transaction valued at $550 million. The price surprised analysts, who noted that it was below National's market value and represented a substantial discount from its book value. (Page D1.) Phibro-Salomon's co-chairman, David Tendler, resigned, two months after he was pushed aside as co-chief executive. Analysts said John H. Gutfreund, the chief executive who had also been co- chairman, was now completely in control of the investment banking and commodity trading house. (D1.)

IT'S not at all surprising that Oriental calligraphy, an art of expressive gesture, has become increasingly valued by 19th- and 20th-century Western painters. It used to be that painting strove to bury all evidence of the brush - and thus the ''hand'' - but as the spontaneity of drawing has gradually been allowed to invade the canvas, the dynamic line of calligraphy - which brings the joy of drawing to the drudgery of writing - has become more appreciated. Now, in response to the heightened Western interest in the fine art of the brush, comes ''Masters of Japanese Calligraphy: 8th-19th Century,'' organized by the Japan House Gallery, 333 East 47th Street, and the Asia Society Galleries, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street, through Jan. 6. The first comprehensive survey in the United States of this highly developed art form as practiced by the Japanese, this dazzling show presents more than 150 examples of calligraphy, divided between the two galleries, in the form of hanging and hand scrolls, folding screens and leaves from albums. As an indication of how calligraphy has come to be valued outside of the Orient, everything at the show was borrowed from Western collections. The show's objects were chosen by John M. Rosenfield, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Oriental Art at Harvard, and Yoshiaki Shimizu, former curator of Japanese art at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington. They also collaborated on the lucid 300-page catalogue ($30 soft cover), the first major study of Japanese calligaphy to appear in English.

Vice President Bush resumed campaigning here this afternoon as his staff portrayed him as an ordinary taxpayer at war with the Internal Revenue Service. On Wednesday he released tax information that showed he paid the revenue service $198,000 last June in back taxes and interest after it audited his 1981 tax return. Mr. Bush contended on Wednesday night in Tulsa that he had ''been taken to the cleaners'' by the I.R.S. and that he intended to challenge the agency's ruling in the courts. Dean Burch, one of Mr. Bush's attorneys in the tax case, said in a statement today that The New York Times had incorrectly characterized the I.R.S. ruling in asserting, at the beginning of the article, that the revenue service had found that Mr. Bush had failed to report income from the sale of a house and had improperly used campaign funds.

Prime Minister Rashid Karami of Lebanon, discussing the withdrawal of Israeli troops from his country, said yesterday that his Government wanted to substitute some form of United States diplomacy for direct negotiations with Israel. Mr. Karami's comments, which came in an interview in Manhattan, underscored the problems that have arisen since the new Israeli Government said it was ready to withdraw from southern Lebanon in a matter of months if its security needs in northern Israel were met. In addition to rejecting direct talks with the Israelis, Mr. Karami also said his Government would not accept Israel's proposal that the South Lebanese Army, a Lebanese militia that Israel is now supporting in southern Lebanon, remain and play a major role in providing security for northern Israel once the 15,000 Israeli soldiers leave. He insisted that the Lebanese Government's army could police the area in southern Lebanon adequately, with the assistance of United Nations forces. Israelis Scorn Position Mr. Karami's position was immediately scorned by senior Israeli officials who were in New York yesterday with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir. One said that if Mr. Karami was serious ''he may have to wait a long time before we leave.''

House and Senate negotiators, trying to compromise on a spending measure to finance the Government for the next 12 months, adjourned tonight without reaching agreement. They plan to resume talks Friday morning. Congressional leaders said the conferees had reached compromises on a number of the provisions in the House and Senate versions of the bill, but that differences remained on military and foreign aid provisions. The Senate passed its $500 billion version of the catchall spending measure on a voice vote earlier today, but the action came too late to avert a partial shutdown of the Government and a half-day furlough of 500,000 Federal employees. The House passed its version of the measure Sept. 25.

The Gillette Company, the big consumer products concern, yesterday gave up on its Cricket, the cleanly designed throwaway lighter that caught America's fancy a decade or so ago. The Boston-based company said it had agreed in principle to sell its Cricket lighter division to the Swedish Match Corporation of Stockholm, a leading European producer of disposable lighters. In some eyes, the attractive toss- away Cricket was as much a symbol of contemporary America as the durable Zippo had been for the sturdy era of World War II. But barely had it caught on than Gillette's product was eaten alive by the Bic Corporation's even cheaper version.

Irwin L. Jacobs of Minneapolis, a dissident stockholder in Walt Disney Productions, sold his entire 7.7 percent stake in the company yesterday to the billionaire Bass brothers of Texas. With the news, Disney shed the label of takeover target for the first time in six months. Mr. Jacobs's $158.1 million sale - made at $61 a share through Jefferies & Company - gives the Basses 24.83 percent of Disney, by far the biggest individual stake in the big West Coast entertainment company.

National Intergroup Inc., in a transaction that would take it further afield from steel, yesterday announced plans to merge with the Bergen Brunswig Corporation, a fast- growing drug and electronics distributor. Bergen Brunswig, which would be the surviving entity and be renamed the Bergen National Corporation, would acquire National Intergroup in a stock transaction valued at $550 million. The agreement evoked surprise and some skepticism on Wall Street because the figure is a substantial discount from the book value of National Intergroup, which some put as high as $900 million. It is also lower than the current market value of the stock.

While most big international banks have been buffeted in recent years by the world financial crisis, Switzerland's Big Three have been quietly scoring success after success. Partly, analysts say, this is because of their broad earnings base, which has assured steady returns despite poor overall economic conditions. But the analysts also cite the Swiss banks' conservative lending policy, through which they managed to avoid the high-risk Eastern European and Latin American loans that have proved so troublesome for their West German and American competitors. ''Swiss banks are in good shape because the exposure to problem countries is relatively low,'' said H. J"org Graf, vice president and head of research at Bank J. Vontobel & Company A.G. in Zurich, who is one of Switzerland's leading bank analysts. ''Moreover, the substantial reserves already built up can be invested in financial instruments, like money market paper or securities, and in increased lending, as the economic recovery moves ahead.''

A smoky third-rail fire in a Brooklyn subway tunnel yesterday caused the removal of hundreds of people, transit officials said. They said 58 people suffered from smoke inhalation. One of those hurt was a firefighter who, blinded by the smoke, stepped off a subway platform and broke his ankle, the officials said.

David Tendler, pushed aside two months ago as co-chief executive of Phibro-Salomon Inc., announced his resignation last night from the large Wall Street investment banking and commodity trading house that he had assembled. Also stepping down is Hal H. Beretz, the president and chief operating officer of Phibro-Salomon. He will remain as a consultant through 1985. Analysts said the resignations gave John H. Gutfreund - the 54-year-old chief executive and, until yesterday, co-chairman with Mr. Tendler - complete control of Phibro-Salomon.

The Koch administration, seeking ways to screen child-care workers, is moving to fingerprint the tens of thousands of people in and out of government who work with children. The fingerprints would then be checked against criminal records. Yesterday, the City Council's Finance Committee approved a request for $1.1 million from the Department of Investigation to begin the fingerprint checks. The program, which must still be approved by the whole Council, grew out of charges this summer that children had been sexually abused at city-financed day-care centers.