Who actually won the Space Race?

If you were to ask any random person on the street who they think won the space race, their immediate response (after asking you why you were asking this to a complete stranger) would be "the USA, of course". My question to the reader is: was it, though?

Let's look at the facts:

• First nation to put a satellite in orbit: USSR

• First nation to put an animal in space: USSR

• First nation to put a man in space: USSR

(sensing a pattern here?)

• First nation to put a woman in space: USSR

• First nation to do a space-walk: USSR

• First nation to put a human on the Moon: USA

As you can see, the Soviet Union won the most "battles" in the space race. And yet, the USA self-declared themselves victorious by winning the last race. Why, then, does everyone believe the USA won the space race?

I do not wish to shape any opinion; what I do want, is to give the readers some food for thought, by presenting them with facts. Did the USA really win the space race, or is it that you (along with the rest of Western Civilization) were brainwashed by some kind of propaganda?

Maybe (just maybe), it is not the socialist system of the Soviet Union that is inherently propagandist and imperialist. M

maybe, it is the monopoly capitalist system of the USA that is.