The nuclear war is already being fought, except that the bombs are not being dropped on enemy targets -- not yet. It is being fought, moreover, in fairly close correspondence with the predictions of the soothsayers of the think factories. They predicted escalation, and escalation is what we are getting. The biggest nuclear device the United States has exploded measured some 15 megatons, although our B-52s are said to be carrying two 20 -- megaton bombs apiece. Some time ago, however, Mr. Khrushchev decided that when bigger bombs were made, the Soviet Union would make them. He seems to have at least a few 30 -- and 50 -- megaton bombs on hand, since we cannot assume that he has exploded his entire stock. And now, of course, the hue and cry for counter escalation is being raised on our side. Khrushchev threatens us with a 100 -- megaton bomb? So be it -- then we must embark on a crash program for 200 -- megaton bombs of the common or hydrogen variety, and neutron bombs, which do not exist but are said to be the coming thing. So escalation proceeds, ad infinitum or, more accurately, until the contestants begin dropping them on each other instead of on their respective proving grounds.

What is needed, Philip Morrison writes in The Cornell Daily Sun (October 26) is a discontinuity. The escalation must end sometime, and probably quite soon. ``Only a discontinuity can end it,'' Professor Morrison writes. ``The discontinuity can either be that of war to destruction, or that of diplomatic policy.''