In fairness, it wasn't "the country" that put a man on the moon. It was a group of kidnapped ex-nazi rocket engineers and the US the rocket industrial complex, that were tax-payer funded out of fear of the Russkies. Exceptional people (NASA folks) can do exceptional things (Apollo) when given the resources to do it by everyone else who doesn't do anything more to actively contribute than pay taxes (the country).
Ascribing Apollo to an entire country is the definition of stolen valor but for Science.