What was going on when I was born?

President Reagan and Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez agreed today to start discussions leading to the eventual withdrawal of the 12,000 American troops stationed in Spain, according to American and Spanish officials. White House aides said the agreement was essentially a trade-off in which the United States would start serious negotiations for the military reduction as long as Spain remained in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Spain is to hold a referendum next year on whether to remain in the alliance. One Dispute: Nicaragua As Mr. Reagan concluded a two-day visit here, he and Mr. Gonzalez, a Socialist, emerged from apparently amicable meetings in conflict over one key issue: United States policy in Nicaragua.

Vietnam veterans accepted New York City's thanks yesterday at a bittersweet ticker-tape parade through the canyons of lower Manhattan. The blizzard of confetti that greeted the 25,000 marchers, all veterans of America's most unpopular war, culminated a night and a day of celebration orchestrated by the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission. The belated welcome home from a war that ended 10 years ago began Monday night when Mayor Koch lighted the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, adjacent to 55 Water Street. It continued yesterday when a thunderously appreciative crowd, which the police estimated at one million, lined the parade route from Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn to the Battery.

At the beginning of the week they were a tentative bunch, 65 salesmen, jewelers, doctors, businessmen, orthopedists, lawyers, accountants, restaurateurs, construction and computer executives, dentists, dermatologists and writers. Two were women who called themselves housewives, most were at or nearing middle age and all were wondering whether their decision to come south to play baseball had been wise. By week's end they knew. Their uniforms, replicas of those worn by the Yankees, Giants, Dodgers and Cubs, were smudged with dirt, but they didn't care. The peaks of their caps had been curled to the right arch. The bridges of their noses were sunburned. They chewed bubble gum or tobacco incessantly. They spit a lot. They threw knuckleballs. Their talk was of how many hits they had made, how many catches, who had robbed whom with a great stab, and how if that ground ball hadn't taken a bad hop they would have got the guy at first. When they ran on and off the baseball diamond they gave each other open-palm, high-five congratulatory slaps.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1985 International A cut in American forces in Spain is in prospect. United States and Spanish officials said that President Reagan and Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez had agreed in talks in Madrid to begin discussions leading to a reduction and eventual withdrawal of the 12,000 American military personnel in Spain. But American officials said such a move depended on continued Spanish membership in NATO. [Page A1, Column 6.] Italy opposes Washington's embargo on trade with Nicaragua. Prime Minister Bettino Craxi said Rome would not join the economic embargo and would proceed with a $25 million project in Nicaragua. [A7:1.]

IT was like growing up next door to the circus, he says now, and knowing that you wanted to be an acrobat or a clown. Jean-Louis Gerin was born in Talloires, a town on the shore of Lake Annecy that is the site of the Auberge du Pere Bise, considered for decades to be one of the finest restaurants in France. Today, at 27 years of age, Mr. Gerin is a head chef himself as well as part owner of the small, 36-seat Restaurant Guy Savoy in Greenwich, Conn. In a little over two years at Savoy, Mr. Gerin has attracted considerable attention himself, as well as a loyal clientele who enjoy putting themselves in his hands. Instead of asking for a menu, they simply inquire whether to order red or white wine, and then wait for their food. This is the way Mr. Gerin prefers it. ''I like to feel they have confidence in my cooking and that I know their taste,'' he explained. A few of Mr. Gerin's best dishes are a nage of shrimp (in a shrimp broth), briefly cooked and masked with a white butter sauce; skinless, boneless chicken breasts stuffed with a finely chopped black truffle and a dessert from his childhood, a jellyroll-style rolled apricot cake.

''There was a time when it was difficult to accept the lack of recognition.