Just about every great accomplishment throughout civilization has been during times of stability in which people lived at some level of comfort. It takes people who feel safe and have leisure time for culture and science to move forward. Granted, some innovations have been to produce better weapons, but those are mostly developed by the more successful nations getting greedy.
We see it today. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Egypt etc had thousands of years of civilization we see crumbling now that they're "free" of their dictators.
So a "KGB thug for an ally"? I have to ask which countries, judged by their cultures and values are the most stable. It ain't US.