From the phrase...."Better dead than Red" was an anti-Communist phrase first used during World War II in its original German form "Lieber tot als rot" and later during the Cold War by the United States. It was coined by Nazi Germany's Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels in the end phase of the Second World War to motivate the German military and population to fight the Russians to the end.

The English version comes probably from the original German but it could also be a re-invention. The slogan was used in the United States in the 1950s by anti-Communists to express their opposition to a Communist takeover in the USA, or indeed to any potent leftist influence at all. The counter-slogan "Better Red than dead" also developed. (See also McCarthyism)

The phrase continues to find use today in various places. Because of the common use of the primary colors red and blue to represent Republican-leaning and Democratic-leaning U.S. states, people in some more politically liberal regions might express their disgust with the power of conservative-leaning areas by using the phrase....Yay for you you learned something.