<P> Minderbinder tends to trust the novel's protagonist Yossarian more than he trusts anyone else because Yossarian--an unselfish man of principle--is so unlike himself . After learning that Yossarian can have all the dried fruit he wants, which he then gives to friends in the squadron, Minderbinder decides that he can be trusted because "anyone who would not steal from the country he loved would not steal from anyone ." However, he continually ignores Yossarian's pleas for help because of his preoccupation with running M&M Enterprises . He ultimately betrays Yossarian by striking a deal with Colonel Cathcart: Yossarian's squadron must fly additional missions, and Minderbinder gets the credit . When Nately's Whore's Kid Sister, a young girl for whom Yossarian comes to care deeply, goes missing, Minderbinder agrees to help him find her, but abandons the attempt in order to smuggle illegal tobacco . </P> <P> Joseph Heller intentionally seeded Catch 22 with "anachronisms like loyalty oaths, helicopters, IBM machines and agricultural subsidies", all of which only appear in the McCarthy Era, in order to create a more contemporary atmosphere . Likewise, Heller created Minderbinder's famous saying "What's good for Milo Minderbinder, is good for the country" (insert Syndicate or M&M Enterprises for Milo Minderbinder) as a parody of Charles E. Wilson, who said "What is good for General Motors is good for the country" during a hearing of a Senate subcommittee in 1952 . Wilson was the head of General Motors in 1952, but became Secretary of Defense in January 1953, thus being an early example of the military - industrial complex, which the Minderbinder character well represents . </P> <P> According to Heller, he modeled the character traits of Minderbinder--fast - talking, self - promoting, thoroughly conscienceless--on his Coney Island childhood friend Marvin Winkler (or Beansy to friends). Winkler is described at length in Heller's 1998 memoir Now and Then . </P> <P> Milo Minderbinder has become the archetypal unabashed war profiteer in the American novel, better known than the first example of the species, the character Charles Holt in the 1863 novel The Days of Shoddy by Henry Morford, and the later characters Marcus Hubbard in the play Another Part of the Forest, Joe Keller in the Miller play All My Sons and Noah Rosewater in the Vonnegut novel God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater . </P>

What's good for m&m enterprises is good for the country