“It was a signal to the United States that now you have to be very cautious if you decide to attack us,” Khrushchev explains.
I could build a case that Sputnik was the reason why we won the could war and the USSR collapsed.
and I would agree with you.
The Russians beat us to space, but we had to up the ante by beating them to the moon. Billions of $$$ of funding for the Space and Arms Races resulted. Not to mention a strong sense of patriotism.