(i) School textbooks glorified the French and justified colonial rule while Vietnamese were represented as primitive and backward. (ii) They were capable of manual labour but not of intellectual reflection. (iii) They could work in the fields but not rule themselves. (iv) They were ‘skilled copyists’ but not creative. (v) School children were told that only French rule could ensure peace in Vietnam. Since the establishment of French rule, the Vietnamese peasant no longer lives in constant terror of pirates.