# The War Department renaming > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "The War Department renaming," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-war-department-renaming/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's support for restoring the name Department of War — because Truman changed it in 1947 to avoid the United States looking like an aggressor, and the record since does not support the euphemism — together with his point that a president cannot rename a federal department by executive order.* - **The original name:** The Department of War, until 1947 - **Who changed it:** President Truman - **Why:** 'He didn''t want the United States to be seen as an aggressor, as an imperialist' - **Kiriakou''s objection to the euphemism:** 'We''re an offensive military country really since we achieved so-called superpower status at the end of the Second World War' - **His position on the change:** 'I have no problem with this change… it is a department of war' - **The procedural point:** A president cannot rename a federal department; it takes an act of Congress - **The vote required:** A simple majority, but 60 in the Senate to break cloture - **His one worry:** That the honest name makes war appropriations harder to rubber-stamp **The War Department renaming** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s response to [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump)'s September 2025 executive order restoring the older name to the Department of Defense. ## The history he gives *"It was the Department of War until 1947, and President Truman changed it because it sounded kind of warmongery."* Asked what the point was so soon after a won war, Kiriakou's answer is about image: *"He didn't want the United States to be seen as an aggressor, as an imperialist. And so he changed it to defense."*[1][2] ## Why he backs the change The euphemism, in his view, fools nobody who looks at the record. *"We're all relatively moderately intelligent people. We can tell the difference between defense and offense. And we're an offensive military country really since we achieved so-called superpower status at the end of the Second World War. We invade countries all over the globe… We're overthrowing governments. We're invading. We're occupying. It is a department of war."*[2][3] His conclusion is unqualified: *"I have no problem with this change"* — *"I have no problem with it at all."*[3][4] He was less impressed by the justification offered, which he characterised as *"hilariously insipid"*, and answered with a joke rather than an argument.[4] ## The procedural obstacle The order alone will not do it. *"A president can't change the name of a federal department. It has to be an act of Congress."* The threshold is a simple majority — *"you need 60 in the Senate because you have to break cloture"* — and Kiriakou did not expect much resistance: *"there's so many more important things to worry about. I don't think the Democrats are going to care one way or the other. I wouldn't"*, though they may oppose it *"just to make life harder for Trump and for the Republicans."*[3][5] ## The one consequence he wonders about His single reservation runs the other way from the objections being raised: that an honest name might make the money harder to move. He wonders *"if it's going to maybe backfire in the future and make it a little more difficult for the defense appropriations to always get rubber stamped year after year after year"* — correcting himself mid-sentence to *"sorry, the war appropriations."*[6] ## See also - [Permanent wartime economy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/permanent-wartime-economy) - [No declaration of war since 1941](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/no-declaration-of-war-since-1941) - [The Pentagon budget reversal](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-pentagon-budget-reversal) - [Donald Trump](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/donald-trump) - [The US overseas basing footprint](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/us-overseas-basing-footprint) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 38:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=2312s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 39:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=2343s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 39:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=2374s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 40:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=2436s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 5. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 40:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=2406s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 6. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-06), at 41:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K7Ab0PsdM&t=2467s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-06-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-war-department-renaming/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt