The quote conveniently omits the fact that socialist regimes, and movements never were like a hippie commune trying to just "rise on its own merits". They were at least as much as aggressive trying to subvert their capitalist adversaries. And in this war (both overt, and covert) socialist side often had advantages stemming from centralization, mobilization, and relative closeness of its leader states, i.e. one couldn't protest Soviet foreign military operations the way it was possible in the US, UK, or Germany, or France, and spying/sabotaging was harder to do in USSR, then in any opposing country. In the end, ability to innovate, and provide people with food, and comforts decided the outcome. And it tells us something.