September 4, 1985

John J. McLaughlin, who resigned last month as president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, was indicted yesterday on charges that included stealing more than $250,000 from a woman whom he had represented as an attorney and financial trustee. The grand jury indictment was announced by District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau of Manhattan. He said Mr. McLaughlin was now under investigation in connection with his activities as an official of the Hospitals Corporation. Mr. McLaughlin, who is 39 years old, resigned from his $95,500-a-year post on Aug. 16, after advising city officials that he was under investigation by the District Attorney.

The Reagan Administration said today that talks last week with Vietnamese officials in Hanoi were ''the most positive'' to date in the 12-year effort to resolve the problem of Americans unaccounted for in the Vietnam War. A State Department spokesman, Charles E. Redman, said that ''I am pleased to state that the talks were very productive'' and that the meeting ''took place in a constructive atmosphere.'' Last Wednesday and Thursday, a four-member United States team led by Richard Childress, the political and military affairs director of the National Security Council staff, met with the acting Vietnamese Foreign Minister, Vo Dong Giang, and with Deputy Foreign Minister Hoang Bich Son. Originally, a higher-level American delegation, led by Richard L. Armitage, Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Paul D. Wolfowitz, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, had been scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach. But when Mr. Thach informed Washington on Aug. 23 that he had to travel to Moscow, Mr. Armitage and Mr. Wolfowitz canceled plans at the last minute to fly to Hanoi.

Hanson Trust P.L.C. sharply raised its bid for the SCM Corporation yesterday to $72 a share, or a total of $878 million, in cash. Wall Street professionals, taking a gamble that a competing bidder, Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, might respond with a higher offer, bid up the price of SCM stock yesterday by $5, to $72, on the New York Stock Exchange. The gamble may have been in vain, however. Sources close to the situation said that Merrill Lynch would ''probably drop out,'' taking an estimated $10 million consolation prize for joining in the bidding.

The Defense Department has proposed canceling a new Air Force training plane that is the mainstay of the Fairchild Republic Company's aircraft plant on Long Island, Pentagon and industry sources said today. The sources said the Air Force proposed the cancellation of the $3.5 billion program in Pentagon budget documents, as part of a budget-trimming exercise, and the move had been approved by Deputy Secretary of Defense William H. Taft 4th. His endorsement came two weeks ago in a classified ''program decision memorandum,'' the sources added. Officials said management deficiencies at the Farmingdale plant, which the Air Force had previously made public, figured in the decision to eliminate the plane, the T-46A. #3,600 Employees at Plant Aerospace industry analysts said its cancellation could be fatal to the Republic plant in Farmingdale, which employs 3,600 people.

CBS Inc., looking for ways to pay for its costly takeover fight earlier this summer with Ted Turner, announced yesterday that it would offer early retirement to 2,000 employees, or about 7 percent of its work force. The program will be offered to all employees who are at least 55 years old and have at least 10 years of pension credit. CBS said the option provided ''significantly increased'' pension benefits. Last July, in a decisive maneuver against the Atlanta broadcast entrepreneur, CBS offered to buy 21 percent of its own shares. It paid for the stock with a package of cash and new securities. Not only did the moveput value in the hands of restless shareholders, but the notes issued also carried conditions barring the type of offer Mr. Turner had made.