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Originally Posted by Olefin
Leg you are forgetting something - the Chinese Soviet war.
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You are correct, that did slip my mind, however that wasn't on anywhere near the level of Lend Lease and only ran about a third of the time. Although the US (and others) were supporting an anti-Soviet country, China still was in no way the wests ally. Given that no other war was envisaged at the time (unlike in 1939), there's little need to ramp up US production - existing stocks and production facilities would be more than enough (and political considerations and interference would stop much more anyway).
Existing facilities are one thing, and prior to WWII, the US did have some industrial capacity devoted solely to war material, but it was nowhere near enough. It took several years for more facilities to be constructed, and existing factories manufacturing consumer goods to be converted (some which ended up making radically different products to their peace time lines - a refrigerator factory being one example which produced machineguns).
After the war, the US government owned a lot of recently constructed, purpose built factories which were sold off in the following decade, although some (such as the one you've mentioned) have been maintained and updated as the years have passed.
In theory, it doesn't take long to convert, but as the book details, reality is a LOT different. There's lack of machine tools, necessity to construct new factory buildings, acquisition of manpower, housing, feeding and entertainment of said manpower, availability of raw materials, sourcing supplies of vital components, and of course the political and bureaucratic hurdles which are ALWAYS getting in the way. Just look at the political games being played over the Mexico-US border at the moment for examples of that last bit.
The book, and the papers it's based heavily upon, dates from 1997, right in the middle of our timeframe. Well worth a read to see just how difficult it is, and how many factors are involved in ramping up to a "total war" situation. Comparing WWII and the (obviously fictional) Twilight War, using the historical records and assessments in the book shows the US (and others) would have been nowhere near full production by the time of the nukes.
I'm sure we've all know somebody who absolutely INSISTS that technical advancement would have occurred much faster in T2K than in reality, with for example night vision gear being far more available in the game than in real life. Given the points I've already mentioned, and others in the book (seriously, read it if you can) it's clear this just isn't so. A few prototypes perhaps, but there's just no way everyone's carrying around the good stuff, or in most cases even aware of somebody who's see said goodies.