DDA Exchange: Excerpts from the CIA's Internal Newsletter

A facsimile reprint of the CIA's never-before-seen internal employee newsletter.

DDA Exchange collects, for the first time in public print, the CIA's internal employee newsletter from the 1970s and 1980s. Created in the wake of Watergate and the revelations of the Church Committee, DDA Exchange was the CIA's internal propaganda organ meant to boost employee morale and instill an esprit de corps among members of "the Company." The newsletter, featuring a contemporary avant-garde layout and style, kept employees informed of the vast array of Agency business such as remote-viewing health care options, prudent retirement strategies, the latest in terrorism signal processing, and how to use the Agency's brand-new Media Center. 

Included in this facsimile reprint is the original design document in which the Agency discusses font choices and graphic elements to be used for their newsletter. A metatextual art book as well as an institutional zine compilation and aesthetic reference, DDA Exchange offers a rare glimpse into the gears and cogs which turn the odious machinery of the shadow state.

Mitch Anzuoni is the founding editor of Inpatient Press and its translation imprint, Mercurial Editions. His writing has appeared in Harper's and Rhizome.