What is Afghan for Ap Bac?

Sigh....why do I think I am reading Neal Sheehan's book all over again?

Then.
"...On January 3,1963, several American war correspondents approached General Paul D. Harkins to ask what he thought about the battle the 7th Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) Division had just fought at a village named Bac...They learned that the fighting had ended the day before, and that it had not been a success. 'It was a miserable…performance,' said the American adviser to the 7th Division, Lt. Col. John Paul Vann..."

Now.
KABUL, Afghanistan — "...An ambitious military operation that Afghan officials had expected to be a sign of their growing military capacity instead turned into an embarrassment, with Taliban fighters battering an Afghan battalion in a remote eastern area until NATO sent in French and American rescue teams..."