Vietnam was split into north and south by way of what was supposed to be a temporary solution to the crisis in Vietnam which involved finding a way for the French to leave and a future civil government of Vietnam to be created. While French Indochina did include all of Vietnam as well as Cambodia and Loas, about 3/4s of Vietnam was occupied by the Viet Minh at that time while the remainder of Veitnam was occupied by the French Union. The part of Vietnam that bordered Vietnam was also occupied by the Veit Minh. The rest was mostly occupied by the French Union or French.

Most of the real fighting was going on in Vietnam and the solution reached in Geneva was to leave each of the regions outside of Vietnam as their own nations, with a royal head of state, and to create a temporary north and south Vietnam, with the south also have a royal head of state. That solution turned out to be very imperfectly arranged, as is rather obvious.