The Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States is a government-chartered non-profit organization established by an act of the United States Congress in 1936. As specified in U.S.law:
"The purpose of this Corporation shall be fraternal, patriotic, historical, charitable, and educational: to preserve and strengthen comradeship among its members; to assist worthy comrades; to perpetuate the memory and history of our dead; and to assist their widows and orphans; to maintain true allegiance to the Government of the United States of America, and fidelity to its Constitution and laws; to foster true patriotism; to maintain and extend the institutions of American freedom, and to preserve and defend the United States from all her enemies whomsoever."
Sec. 3 of the Congressional Charter incorporating the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars