An organization of American veterans who have taken part in a foreign military campaign or expedition of the United States. Like the American Legion, it usually takes pro-defense stands on foreign policy issues.
American organization created in 1913-14 by the merger of three national war-veteran societies that were founded in 1899, shortly after the Spanish-American War. The American Veterans of Foreign Service, the Colorado Society of the Army of the Philippines, and another society also known as the American Veterans of Foreign Service merged in a convention in Pittsburgh, Pa., to become the single nationwide association known since then as the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.