Discussions, post-mortems, analysis, inflated egos, and all that jazz.

Does surviving in a deadly civilizational competition mean "failing"? You're exaggerating. In reality, after World War II, we became the second world superpower.

That's right. And Eastern Europe sided with us not only because they were "occupied." At that time, it wasn't clear which system would prove to be more promising. For some, it was very clear that the future belonged to the USSR, and they only argued about when it would leave the Americans far behind. It's roughly the same as it is now with China.