A better example might be the WBTS when the South could not afford to keep up with technological advances like the Spencers. That was costly.
Your article sounds a lot like Hanson's work.
1) We won WWII with the help of technical advances, but we won it because the American people as a whole were united behind the war effort, and we knew we were fighting on the right side, for the right cause. We understood what the long-term, global consequences would be if the enemy were to win. [Something the Dems do NOT understand today]
2) The technological advances were made out of necessity and desperation only once the fighting was underway. Only after the enemy attacked did we have a clear sense of how unprepared we were. Which fact should have proven to the nation that we must strive to maintain technical and military supremacy during peacetime, so as not to be caught flatfooted again. Kerry fails to understand this crucial lesson of history, and I think that is what Mr. Silverback demonstrates most admirably in his column.