October 24, 1983

Judy L. Chesser, the New York City lobbyist here, met with the staff of Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato recently to describe the bounty that would flow to the city if the New York Republican voted in favor of a $26 million amendment. At the same time that Senator D'Amato was being courted by the city, he was being courted by Brad C. Johnson, the New York State lobbyist, who Mr. D'Amato understood to say that the $26 million the city wanted for itself should be spread around the state. New York City and New York State have substantial lobbying offices in the capital, and sometimes their interests clash. Sometimes, their interests coincide, but in other cases they appear to go their separate ways with little coordination. Dwindling Federal Appropriations The chief chore for Mr. Johnson and Miss Chesser is to insure that in an era of dwindling Federal appropriations to state and local governments, the actions of the Congressional and executive branches help their clients as much as possible.

A suicide terrorist driving a truck loaded with TNT blew up an American Marine headquarters at the Beirut airport today, killing at least 161 marines and sailors and wounding 75. In an almost simultaneous attack, another bomb- laden truck slammed into a French paratroop barracks two miles away. According to Lebanese Civil Defense authorities, at least 27 French paratroopers were killed, 12 were wounded and 53 were reported missing and believed buried in rubble. Official Defense Ministry figures issued in Paris listed 12 French soldiers dead, 13 wounded and 48 missing. It was the highest number of American military personnel killed in a single attack since the Vietnam War. The identity of the attackers still had not been determined tonight.

President Reagan will try this week to break the logjam over the bill authorizing an increase in the American contribution to the International Monetary Fund, Administration officials reported over the weekend. The long-awaited move still has to be cleared by top Presidential advisers, but according to some officials, it will be in the form of a letter thanking 20 House Democrats who supported the President when the I.M.,F. bill was on the floor last August. Another official, when asked whether the letter would take the form of a ''thank you'' or an ''apology'' to the 20 Democrats for an attack on them by the House Republican Campaign Committee, described it as an ''explanation.'' He said it had almost been cleared Friday, and other officials said today that the timetable for the signing of the letter would be kept despite the Administration's concern over the bombing of the Marine quarters in Beirut. The letter, which has been through many drafts, represents a new effort by the White House to get the legislation moving again. The bill has been caught in political crossfire, disputes over what the United States should or should not be doing to help the rest of the world and a bitter conflict over legislation that the Administration has opposed for subsidized housing for the American poor.

Gunnery Sgt. Herman Lange was one of the first marines to get down to the bombed Marine headquarters from a nearby barracks. ''Bodies were lying around all over,'' he said. ''Other people were trapped under the concrete. I could hear them screaming: 'Get us out. Don't leave us.' I just started digging, picking men out and taking them away on a jeep. It was total devastation.''

Robert M. Gerrity, president of Ford Brazil, was hurrying through a day of meetings in the showroom of his newly renovated plant here, amid new Ford Escorts that the plant began making last summer for the Latin American market and Europe. He had been summoned back to Detroit to try to explain, once again, the condition of the Brazilian economy. ''It is $4 an hour here,'' Mr. Gerrity said of the wages paid the 12,000 Ford production workers in the factories of the Ford complex here, nearly all in royal blue coveralls. ''It's $12 in Japan, $18 in Europe and $24 in the United States. The plant you're looking at right there will beat the cost of running any plant anywhere in the world.''