More than two dozen leading political strategists kicked off a three-day conference on 1980 presidential campaign decision-making by assessing candidates' pre-primary tactics at a Faculty Club session last night.

Sponsored by the Institute of Politics (IOP), the quadrennial conference features the campaign managers and top officials of the three principal general election contenders, and also includes representatives of many primary candidates.

Only Anderson

Independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson is the only candidate participating in the conference, Nicholas T.Mitropoulos, assistant director of the IOP, said yesterday.

"It's a unique event-adversaries come together and tell each other the strategies they once held so close to their vests," Mitropoulos said. He added the conference is the only one that attracts top officials from all campaigns.

Bestseller

Although the conference is closed to the public, its edited proceedings will appear as a book, due by next summer, on campaign strategists' reflections on the 1980 campaign, Mitropoulos said. Transcripts of the previous two conferences also became books-"Campaign '72: The Managers Speak," and "Campaign for President: The Managers Look at '76."

Carter campaign manager Tim Kraft, chief pollster Patrick H.Caddell, political consultant Robert Keefe, and national political director Jack Walsh will represent the president's forces.

Outlining the Reagan camp's tactics will be campaign manager William J. Casey, press secretary Lyn Nofziger, and deputy director of strategy and polling Dr. Richard Wirthlin.

Strategists for the campaigns of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.), Gov. Edmund G. Brown (D-Calif.), Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kans.), Vice-President-elect George Bush, and former Texas Governor John B. Connally will also speak, as will chairman of the Republican National Committee, and the Les Francis, executive director of the Democratic National Committee.

Today's session, at the Kennedy School, will consider the Democratic and Republican primaries and the parties' conventions, and begin discussing general election strategy. The conference concludes at the Faculty Club tomorrow with more discussion on the general election