Military spending means money flowing into science and education. WWII led to dramatic technological breakthroughs. The cold war inspired much stronger emphasis

Military spending means money flowing into science and education. WWII led to dramatic technological breakthroughs. The cold war inspired much stronger emphasis on STEM for decades. A major conflict would force the government to be more serious about secondary education too and so help with reversing the decay (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31170431 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31170431) of math programs in particular.