Army booklet instructs on limited nuclear war

An unclassified Army booklet that conceives of a tactical nuclear battle with Soviet-style forces lends credence to President Reagan's expressed belief in the possibility of fighting a limited nuclear war.

In the booklet, Army planners stress that atomic weapons can be confined to the battlefield without their use necessarily triggering an all-out exchange of intercontinental nuclear missiles and bombers.

''Theater forces should not be considered solely as a bridge to strategic nuclear war,'' the document says. ''They are weapons which must be considered in the context of a warfighting capability."