To understand the history behind it, look at the origins of USIS (also USIA) from the Department of War Information, OSS, etc. 1918 is the earliest if I remember right and their first attempt (Creel?) ended badly enough there was resistance to renewing new attempts. It took a compromised president wanting eyes off him, WWII, and the Dulles brothers to blatantly trample any ethics and honor and develop the beast we have today.
It makes sense to call it what part of the spectrum they are using and it makes sense that blue survived because the color you see is the part of the light spectrum reflected. However, white reflects all colors so were there any white cars or something else white that didn’t burn like the blue?
Not as lean, just as mean.