January 9, 1984

Robert C. Stempel, general manager of the Chevrolet division, and Lloyd E. Reuss, general manager of the Buick division, seem likely to head two new groups that would result from a proposed reorganization of the General Motors Corporation, according to people in the auto industry. The G.M. board of directors is expected to approve the plan, which would consolidate the company's automotive manufacturing and marketing operations, at a meeting in New York on Monday. A company spokesman, Donald Postma, declined late last week to confirm that the matter would be on the board's agenda, but sources in the industry predict approval of the change. General Motors, these sources say, plans to realign its five automobile divisions - Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac - and its Fisher body and assembly divisions into two groups, with one concentrating on large cars and the other on smaller cars. The auto divisions will continue to exist, the sources add, but will become primarily sales and marketing organizations, with designing, engineering and manufacturing concentrated in the two consolidated groups.

A report Dec. 22 in the Briefing column of the Washington Talk page, about President Reagan's exercises, misidentified a professional wrestler. He is Andre the Giant.

A Presidential commission on Central America will recommend continued American aid to insurgents seeking the overthrow of the Nicaraguan Government, three commission members reported today. But they said the report will assert that such aid will become less necessary as the Nicaraguan Government halts its assistance to leftist guerrillas in El Salvador and makes progress toward internal democracy. The three members said the report treats aid to Nicaraguan rebels as an important way to promote negotiations for a regional settlement in Central America and not as a way of trying to overthrow the Government in Managua. More Aid Called Necessary The report, still private and not scheduled for delivery to President Reagan until Wednesday, also asserts that El Salvador needs six times as much military aid for 1984 and 1985 as Congress has appropriated.

''September was as if someone had turned on a spigot. Business poured in.''

An attack on United States marines in Beirut killed one of them. At least a dozen marines were fired on by unidentified assailants as they were leaving a helicopter. Two Lebanese Army soldiers were wounded when they joined the marines in returning the fire. The dead marine was identified as Cpl. Edward J. Gargano, of Quincy, Mass. (Page A1, Column 1.) Israel denied published reports that it was willing to withdraw its troops from Lebanon without a reciprocal pullout by Syria. An emphatic denial came from Dan Meridor, the Cabinet Secretary. The Israeli press published reports last week that were then circulated by United States officials in Washington that Israel had revised its policy and was willing to consider a pullout despite the presence of Syrian troops in eastern and northern Lebanon. (A1:2.)