Nobody on either side of the cold war made much effort to conceal that most of the rocket research was intended towards ICBM arms race, not peaceful research.

Nobody on either side of the cold war made much effort to conceal that most of the rocket research was intended towards ICBM arms race, not peaceful research. No sane nation would pump that much money into simple research and awe. It was about the next war, or all the game theory stuff that predates or prevents it. And rightly so.