War were founded in 1969 in Los Angeles by Eric Burdon, and for a while they acted as his backing band. After parting company, they became one of the most innovative funk groups in the USA (and one of the few multi-racial groups). They were also commercially successful, starting with Spill The Wine (1970), but their albums offered, above all, a totally new form of dance music. War (1971) was their artistic manifesto. Armed with an experienced line-up featuring guitarist Howard Scott, bassist Morris Dickerson, drummer Harold Brown, keyboardist Lonnie Jordan, saxophonist and flutist Charles Miller (the original pre-Burdon quintet), Danish-born harmonica player Lee "Oskar" Hansen (the group's main composer) and percussionist Thomas "Dee" Allen, and sharing vocal chores, War proceeded to concoct the eight-minute blues melodrama Vibeka and the eleven-minute Cuban-tinged Fidel's Fantasy. After a mediocre sophomore album, they struck gold with The World Is A Ghetto (1972), that ran the gamut from infectious dance ditties such as the languid ten-minute soul-jazz ballad The World Is A Ghetto (1972) to the 13-minute hyperkinetic proto-disco jam City Country City (1972), released just a few months after Dibango's huge international hit Soul Makossa. The Caribbean-tinged The Cisco Kid (1972) and especially Low Rider (1975) added a Latin touch to their progressive-funk sound.

Over the years War's line-up kept changing and the only original member was Leroy "Lonnie" Jordan. The other four original founders (Howard Scott, Lee Oskar, Harold Brown, B.B. Dickerson) launched in 1990 the Lowrider Band.

The saxophonist Charles Miller was murdered in Los Angeles in 1980. The percussionist Thomas "Papa Dee" Allen died in 1988. Bassist Luther Rabb died in 2006. Bassist Morris "B.B." Dickerson died in 2021. Saxophonist Pat Rizzo died in 2021.