Once US was landing on the moon? What kind of achievements you'd like to have? Planetary probes, like Lunokhods - several weeks of Moon exploration? Or Luna-16

Once US was landing on the moon? What kind of achievements you'd like to have? Planetary probes, like Lunokhods - several weeks of Moon exploration? Or Luna-16 - automatic probe which brought lunar soil to Earth? You can say that's less impressive than Apollos, and I'd agree, but that still different things - which USA couldn't do at the time, and those programs had some advantages over Apollos too. Or a series of Venera probes, including landers? Mastery of automated docking? Orbital stations - starting with Salyut-1 - with myriads of experiments (medical, industrial etc.)? Rocket engines - more advanced than American ones by such criteria as working process (gas-gas was tested during 1960's in RD-270 with single chamber thrust rather similar to F-1), Isp and mass ratio (NK-33), total thrust (RD-170)? VEGA comet fly-by? By which criteria these don't count?