ABSTRACT
In the United States, fighting and vigilant soldiers constituted over 60 percent of all freestanding doughboy memorials. In the study, a "vigilant" soldier refers to a soldier who is on guard, actively preparing to fight, and frequently displaying evidence of active combat. Though the Bushwick–Ridgewood doughboy held meaning for diverse audiences, there is no proof that Montana capitalized on the success of his sculpture by signing a contract with a foundry or monument company. Images of US doughboys in the popular culture of the war and interwar years further explain the significance of the triumphant soldier as embodied by Schaaf's doughboy in West Haven, Connecticut, and his charging doughboys in Brooklyn, New York, and Dayton, Ohio. A watchful and aggressive doughboy sculptures resonated with anti-radical sentiment generated by the postwar Red Scare, when widespread concern about Communist influence on US society fueled continued suspicion of immigrant groups and ethnic workers.
