LEAD:  LIBRA  By Don DeLillo.  456 pp. New York: Viking. $19.95.

DALLAS, ECHOING DOWN THE DECADES

LEAD: The most telling sound to come from the confluence of the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers on Friday night was not the succession of roars produced by the big crowd at Three Rivers Stadium. It was a sound that had more to do with the respect the Pittsburgh Pirates have earned than a celebration of what they have achieved.

Young Pirates Bring Out That Old Fan Spirit

LEAD: PLANS for a gigantic European-style supermarket were announced last month in this once quiet bedroom community adjacent to Raleigh, the state's capital.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: Cary, N.C.;
Europe Comes To Piedmont

LEAD: In his first response to the Democratic National Convention, President Reagan today accused his political rivals of making ''personal attacks'' against Republicans and trying to conceal from the voters what he portrayed as the Democrats' true liberal colors.

PRESIDENT ASSERTS DEMOCRATS CLOAK THEIR TRUE COLORS

LEAD: The head of the Food and Drug Administration told an AIDS conference in Boston today that the agency would allow Americans to import unapproved drugs from abroad in small quantities for their personal use.

F.D.A. Will Allow AIDS Patients To Import Unapproved Medicines

LEAD: New Yorkers are adjusting to the city's new anti-smoking law with little argument or incident because it follows a profound social change that has transformed the way people live and work.

New York No-Smoking Law: Echoing Society's 'No More!'

LEAD: At Glenpointe in Teaneck, N.J., Alfred Sanzari built 160 town houses and has sold all but five. He built 567,000 square feet of office space in two seven-story towers and has leased 95 percent of it.

POSTINGS: At Languishing Teaneck Retail Center; And Now, Offices

LEAD: Farm-to-town-house conversions along the Hudson River in upstate New York have become as common as factory-to-loft conversions along Hudson Street in Soho. Most recently, Otto and Henry Frank decided it was time to retire and sell the Frank Brothers Farm just east of downtown Poughkeepsie on Route 44.

POSTINGS: At a Farm on the Hudson; A Budding Crop of 450 Houses

LEAD: On one side stood Senator Lloyd Bentsen, the courtly embodiment of the Democratic Party's conservative wing. On the other, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the impassioned voice of the party's left. In the middle was Michael Stanley Dukakis, the nominee of the Democratic National Convention, and he was smiling.

THE ORDERLY RISE OF A NEW KIND OF DEMOCRAT

LEAD: The Democrats emerged from their national convention this week united in support of their ticket and upbeat in their assessment that the gathering in Atlanta improved Michael S. Dukakis's chances in November.

Democrats, Upbeat After Atlanta, Emerge With Ambitious Strategy

LEAD: A DREAM of public power on Long Island quite unlike what backers of the Long Island Power Authority had in mind has taken root in the second largest public power authority in the country.

State Power Agency Contemplates Larger Role in Wake of Shoreham

LEAD: IT is one of the great family dynasties in corporate America. McGraw-Hill Inc., the publishing giant founded in 1909, has had a McGraw at the helm through two world wars, the Depression and into the electronic era.

A Family Defends Its Dynasty

LEAD: There is great controversy today about the character and quality of American education. A longstanding concern with the nation's schools, elementary and secondary, has in recent years been made even more dramatic by reports of decline at the highest level in America's colleges and universities. In our late-20th-century throwaway culture, where every idea has its season, it has become fashionable to find fault with

WESTERN CIV AND ITS CHILDREN

LEAD: NEXT month, Audi of America will introduce the Audi 100 and 200, two new models whose success or failure will reach far beyond industry sales charts. If the cars are a hit, the beleaguered luxury division of Volkswagen of America may be able to restore its image as a producer of refined luxury-performance cars.

A Hard Sell for Audi

LEAD: A scaled-down airport-modernization plan, which reduces the proposed new terminal's size to 41,000 square feet from 51,500 and cuts parking-garage spaces to 1,200 from 2,000, received stepped-up support from some key county officials who reviewed it last week.

Revised Plan for Airport Gains Support

LEAD: >GLITZ has overtaken tradition as the decor of choice in the lobbies of Manhattan's new higher-income residential buildings. Entrances are awash in the riches of the material world, with majestic works of art, modern statuary and glistening fountains set off by decorations faced with marble and detailed with gold leaf.

New Look in Lobbies: Glitzy Eclectic

LEAD: To offer $72,000 co-ops from a total rehabilitation in Yonkers, Kurt Wittek said, it helps to start with an inexpensive shell. But to find bargains, you have to consider offbeat properties. Mr. Wittek bought Yonkers Professional Hospital for $1,175,000 in 1986 and is converting the 140-room institution at 27 Ludlow Street into 70 studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments priced at up to $225,000.

POSTINGS: Yonkers Co-ops for $72,000; Hospital Reborn

LEAD: The United States Olympic track and field trials ended today as Florence Griffith Joyner turned in another outstanding performance and a few surprise athletes made the team along with a bunch of familiar faces.

Griffith Joyner Takes The 200

LEAD: WITH its reputation as a center of manufacturing and finance as well as its proximity to major United States cities, Toronto has emerged as one of Canada's economic bright spots. Last year there was record demand for office space, and as a trade agreeement with the United States nears approval, the business community is geared up for continued economic growth in the 1990's.

FOCUS: Toronto; Growth Foreseen Into 1990's

LEAD: FOR Karl D. Bays, figuring out what he wanted to do with his life was never much of a problem. There was really just one career that interested him. ''All I ever wanted to be was a manager,'' said Mr. Bays, a husky, cigar-smoking Kentuckian.

Karl Bays Makes Over IC Industries

LEAD: At the end of each inning, John Smoltz would walk slowly back to the Atlanta dugout and, just before stepping down, steal a look into the box seats. There, without fail, he would spot the small knot of family and friends who had traveled halfway across the country to watch his debut in the major leagues.

Mets Bow as Braves Pitcher Makes His Debut

LEAD: By almost any standard, it was a remarkable statement. In the equivalent of a fireside chat except that it was read for him by a radio announcer, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in effect told the Iranian nation last week that it had lost the war with Iraq and must now turn its attention to salvaging what is left of the decade-old revolution he brought about.

A CHASTENED AYATOLLAH CALLS OFF HIS HOLY WAR

INSIDE

LEAD: Two decades into a national experiment with legalized gambling that has seen 28 states and the District of Columbia adopt lotteries to raise money for education and other services, uneasiness about social consequences is growing.

For Some Bettors, Lotteries Create a Chance for Disaster

LEAD: A senior Soviet Army analyst said in an interview published today that the Afghan Army cannot be relied upon to hold power after Soviet troops complete their withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Soviet General Declares Kabul Could Collapse

Han Seung-yeon, known mononymously as Seungyeon, is a South Korean singer and actress. She is best known as the vocalist of the South Korean girl group Kara, and for her role in Hello, My Twenties!.

Han Seung-yeon, South Korean singer and dancer

Han_Seung-yeon

Nichkhun Buck Horvejkul, better known mononymously as Nichkhun, is a Thai and American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and model who is currently based in South Korea as a member of the South Korean boy band 2PM.

Nichkhun, Thai-American singer-songwriter and actor

Nichkhun

Ricky Petterd is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club and Richmond Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

July 24, 1988

Headlines from July 24, 1988

DALLAS, ECHOING DOWN THE DECADES

Young Pirates Bring Out That Old Fan Spirit

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: Cary, N.C.; Europe Comes To Piedmont

PRESIDENT ASSERTS DEMOCRATS CLOAK THEIR TRUE COLORS

F.D.A. Will Allow AIDS Patients To Import Unapproved Medicines

Billboard 200

Hysteria

OU812

Dirty Dancing

Appetite For Destruction

Faith

Notable Births

Historical Context for July 24, 1988