You seem to be measuring &quot;did better&quot; by a yardstick of &quot;was not integrated into an international trade regime where it specialized on comparative advantage, but instead tried to do everything itself.&quot;<p>While there may be some merit to that as a positive indicator, all other things being equal, I think that you have to look more broadly.<p>(Which is not to say that US-allied countries universally did better than Communist Block countries that were comparable prior to the Cold War; neoliberal trade certainly has a strong core&#x2F;periphery effect; I think US-aligned countries in the core -- e.g., Europe particularly -- did better than comparable Communist Bloc countries, and the results are considerably more mixed otherwise.)