Better dead than red; as in commie red. This has been a saying my entire life. The cold war (1949-1991) was always a part of life well into adulthood. Even though the cold war ended and communism ended as we knew it in Russia; it still existed in America and in fact flourished.
That saying “Better Dead Than Red” is still true today because nothing would destroy America and our freedoms faster than a transition to socialism/communism/marxism. Well, I guess nuclear bombs would do it faster, but short of a multi-country takeover and invasion hitting our shores with our 300 million strong weapons pointed at them on top of our military; communism is our biggest threat.
We have solid evidence from Japan that nuclear bombs are much less destructive than communism.