A) A political system versus an economic system. For example, USSR under Stalin had a totalitarian political system with communism guiding its economics. China today is a hybrid, with constrained "free enterprise" being largely controlled by the Chinese military.
The US today is a basket case waiting for a non-existent "magic bullet" - politically and economically. The point possibly missed is that you never get the "time" back, while the interest on the debt compounds, compounds, ... , etc.
B) As to WWII, see General Wedermeyer's book from 1958, The Wedermeyer Reports, for other perspectives on "Grand Strategy", who lost China, ..., etc.
C) released only a month ago, highly recommend George H. Nash's Freedom Betrayed: Herbert Hoover's Secret History of the Second World War and Its Aftermath.
To quote Arthur Jensen in the movie, "Network"
"What do you think the Russians talk about in their Councils of State? Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do."