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The Battle of Ap Bac was a small-scale battle early in the Vietnam War (1958–1975) which resulted in the first major combat victory by the Vietcong against regular South Vietnamese forces. The battle took place on January 2, 1963, near the hamlet of Ap Bac, 65km (40 miles) southwest of Saigon in the Mekong Delta. Forces of the 7th Division of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), equipped with armored personnel carriers (APCs) and artillery and supported by American helicopters, faced off against an entrenched battalion of guerrillas.

The small scale combat, in what would develop into the Vietnam War, started in the late 1950s when the South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm had instituted an anti-communist campaign aimed at rooting out "left behind" Viet Minh forces. At that time North Vietnam was hoping for an election, promised under the Geneva Accord (1954), that would unite North and South. It was also worried about inciting the United States into directly supporting the South, and had recommended a policy of avoiding combat at all costs. However, Diệm"s campaign was too successful to allow their forces to do nothing, and small scale actions broke out across the country. North Vietnam remained worried about U.S. involvement and refused any sort of military support, forcing the remaining Viet Minh to retreat into inaccessible areas in the hills and river estuaries. A stalemate of sorts followed, as the South"s forces took so long to reach these areas that the guerrilla fighters were able to retreat with little difficulty.

American support had begun during the early 1960s with the arrival of large numbers of Special Forces troops to help in the field, and a joint U.S.-Vietnamese air force, although the later was essentially a U.S. force in all but name. The arrival of helicopters changed the nature of the battle considerably, allowing the ARVN forces to quickly fly to almost any point in the country, leaving little time for a retreat. Throughout 1962 the combined forces were increasingly effective in routing Vietcong forces. These tactics, combined with the use of armoured personnel carriers, took a heavy toll on Vietcong forces. The lightly-armed guerrillas had no weaponry capable of stopping the armored carriers and inevitably were forced to flee, taking heavy casualties.