I always considered that the government, which consists of elite politicians, is elected to represent national interests and protect people, to prevent wars and maintain national economy.

After analyzing the policy of American government since the Cold War till nowadays I concluded that it’s differ from my conception.

After the Wold War II Berlin was divided into four zones, which were controlled by four superpowers. Later French, British and American zones were integrated into one. Thus east part of Berlin was controlled by the Soviet Union and western, correspondingly by United States and Western Europe. Of course United States pursued their own interests, the most important of them were: – to protect America from the aggression of Soviet Union or “Evil Empire”; – to stop the expansion of communism in the Third World and Soviet zones of influence and to carry out the policy that is convenient for US in these countries; – to provide welfare, security, freedom and liberty for Americans; – to recover world economy in a “healthy” way. But these interests were not completely identical to those of American people and business. I think that American families needed to feel themselves secure, free and independent; they did not want their countrymen to die in military operations. But why only Americans? I think everybody want to live in peace and not to worry about their lives. As for American business, its interests were much closer to political one: during the World War II our industry was mainly aimed at weapon development and production, so when the war ended there were many weapons left in supply. The trouble was that nobody would buy these weapons while peace. The Cold War provided fear of military operations against the “Evil Empire” and its ally. So weapon industry worked very intensively to produce and develop as much weapons as it was possible and then sold it. That is why the Cold War was very profitable for many businesses.

At the last decade of twentieth century the Soviet Union fell and democracy overwhelmed the totalitarianism. So with the end of the Cold War United States achieved several important goals: – the Soviet Union is defeated and it seems that there are no more threats left for America; – expansion of communism stopped; – world economy functions in the right direction and United States can exert influence on it. But new threats for democracy emerge, so new goals and interests arise. These interests are alike old one, but the enemy is not Soviet Union. As for American national interests, they do not change significantly: people want to live in peace and wish everybody the same. Americans do not want our soldiers to kill people and to be killed by other soldiers. Unfortunately United States have many enemies because of it’s policy, what is a dirty and cruel game, where everybody is pursuing his own interests and often not paying attention to interests of other. American economy and business prosper, so it can be inferred that economics’ interests are still close enough to the policy that is carried out by US.

In conclusion I want to summarize my points: – since the beginning of the Cold War American National interests are different from the policy of US, but the government tries to make an impression that they are identical; – business is business and it often does not want to care about ethical and moral side of it’s activities; American economics’ interests almost coincide with policy since the beginning of the Cold War and now the situation is the same; – although the Cold War ended interests of United States did not change much, because new enemies of democracy emerge (or invented), and these interests will always cross with the interests of others and thus there will always some threats for America. The government does not follow its mission out because its interests are not identical to national one.