Title: South Vietnam
Content:  South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; Việt Nam Cộng Hòa; République du Viêt Nam), was a country that existed from 1955 to 1975, the period when the southern portion of Vietnam was a member of the Western Bloc during part of the Cold War. It first received international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the French Union, with its capital at Saigon (renamed to Ho Chi Minh City in 1976), before becoming a republic in 1955. South Vietnam was bordered by North Vietnam to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and Thailand across the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest. Its sovereignty was recognized by the United States 
Title: Vietnam
Content:  French in late 1946. The resulting First Indochina War lasted until July 1954. The defeat of French colonialists and Vietnamese loyalists in the 1954 battle of Điện Biên Phủ allowed Hồ to negotiate a ceasefire from a favourable position at the subsequent Geneva Conference. The colonial administration was thereby ended and French Indochina was dissolved under the Geneva Accords of 1954 into three countries—Vietnam, and the kingdoms of Cambodia and Laos. Vietnam was further divided into North and South administrative regions at the Demilitarised Zone, roughly along the 17th parallel north, pending elections scheduled for July 1956. A 300-day period of free movement was permitted, during which almost a million northerners, mainly Catholics, moved south, fearing persecution by the communists. This migration was 
Title: Singapore–Vietnam relations
Content:  Singapore. After the Second World War, France used Singapore as a mediate to send troops and equipment to suppress the Vietnamese Independence Movement. In 1954, the Geneva Conference decided to divide Vietnam into two parts, which the northern part belongs to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, or North Vietnam, led by the Communist Party of Vietnam, while the southern part belongs to the Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam, an anti-communist regime. In early days, Singapore implemented anti-communist policy, making the Government of Singapore supported South Vietnam. When Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in 1965, South Vietnam became one of the earliest Asian nations to recognize Singapore and established 
Title: Exclusive mandate
Content:  The Democratic Republic of Vietnam was proclaimed in 1945; the Republic of Vietnam gained its independence from France in 1954. While elections were intended to be held in 1955 to reunite the country, they never took place. For the next 20 years, both staked claims to all of Vietnam, claiming that the other was an illegally constituted puppet state. This continued until South Vietnam unconditionally surrendered to North Vietnam in 1975. When some European countries (such as Switzerland) started recognizing North Vietnam towards the end of the Vietnam war, South Vietnam did not interrupt its diplomatic relations with them. Switzerland thus recognized North Vietnam in 1971 but also turned its consulate in Saigon (South Vietnam) into an embassy until the 
Title: History of Vietnam (1945–present)
Content:  After World War II and the collapse of Vietnam's monarchy, France attempted to re-establish its colonial rule but was ultimately defeated in the First Indo-China War. The Geneva Accords in 1954 partitioned the country temporarily in two with a promise of democratic elections in 1956 to reunite the country. However, the United States and South Vietnam insisted on United Nations supervision of any election to prevent fraud, which the Soviet Union and North Vietnam refused. North and South Vietnam therefore remained divided until The Vietnam War ended with the Fall of Saigon in 1975. After reunification in 1975, the newly reunified Vietnam faced many 
Title: North Vietnam
Content:  After the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam, or Vietcong, alongside the North Vietnamese Army, governed South Vietnam during the period before reunification. However it was seen as a vassal government of North Vietnam. North and South Vietnam were officially reunited on 2 July 1976 as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The merged country's government was dominated by holdovers from North Vietnam.
Title: North Vietnam
Content:  all nationalist oppositions, the First Indochina War burst out between the Việt Minh and the French in December 1946. During this guerrilla war, the Việt Minh captured and controlled most of the rural areas in Vietnam which led to French defeat in 1954. The negotiations in the Geneva Conference that year ended the war and recognized Vietnamese independence. The Geneva Accords provisionally divided the country into a northern and a southern zone along the 17th parallel, stipulating general elections scheduled for July 1956 to "bring about the unification of Viet-Nam". The northern zone was controlled by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and became commonly called North Vietnam, while the southern zone, under control of the 
Title: Vietnam
Content:  large part aided by the United States military through Operation Passage to Freedom. The partition of Vietnam by the Geneva Accords was not intended to be permanent, and stipulated that Vietnam would be reunited after the elections. But in 1955, the southern State of Vietnam's prime minister, Ngô Đình Diệm, toppled Bảo Đại in a fraudulent referendum organised by his brother Ngô Đình Nhu, and proclaimed himself president of the Republic of Vietnam. This effectively replaced the internationally recognised State of Vietnam by the Republic of Vietnam in the south—supported by the United States, France, Laos, Republic of China and Thailand—and Hồ's Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north, supported by the Soviet Union, Sweden, Khmer Rouge, and the People's Republic of China.
Title: South Vietnam
Content:  Nguyễn Văn Xuân (1948–49) ; 1949–1955 State of Vietnam (Quốc gia Việt Nam). Internationally recognized in 1950. Roughly 60 percent of Vietnamese territory was actually physically controlled by the communist Việt Minh. Vietnam was partitioned at the 17th parallel in 1954. ; Bảo Đại (1949–1955). Abdicated as emperor (constitutional monarch) in 1945 following surrender of Imperial Japanese occupying forces at the end of World War II, later serving as Head of State to 1955. ; 1955–1975 Republic of Vietnam (Việt Nam Cộng Hòa). Fought Vietnam War [Second Indochina War], (1959–75) against the Hanoi government ; Ngô Đình Diệm (1955–1963). Once highly lauded by America, he was ousted and assassinated in a US-backed coup 
Title: 9th Infantry Division (Thailand)
Content:  After World War II ended in 1945, Vietnam announced that it would fight France for the liberation of Vietnam. The French colonies had to fight for 8 years until France accepted defeat and signed the Geneva Convention 1954 in Geneva. As a result, Vietnam was divided into two parts the North Vietnam and South Vietnam with the 17th parallel as the boundary between the two Vietnams. Under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, who sought to reunite Vietnam, the North supported the Viet Cong as it harassed and infiltrated South Vietnam. The US government sent troops to assist the South Vietnamese military in alliance with Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand with Spain sending a medical unit. At the beginning of the Vietnam war the Thai government approved the principle 

Question: prior to 1948 north and south vietnam were a part of?
Answer: France.