Ralph Frank (born 1946) is the former American ambassador to

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

(1997–2001) and

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

(2003–2006). Frank received a BA in 1968 and an MBA in 1973 from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. A cable written by Frank in November 2003 revealed the American interest in obtaining the S-300 surface-to-air missile system from

. The Croatian government acquired the system in 1995, before the

Operation Storm Operation Storm ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, Operacija Oluja, separator=" / ", Операција Олуја) was the last major battle of the Croatian War of Independence and a major factor in the outcome of the Bosnian War. It was a decisive victory f ...

, but it was incomplete and was never operative. According to other sources, including the court testimony of arms dealer Zvonko Zubak, the system was indeed shipped to the U.S. in 2004. (See Contents of the United States diplomatic cables leak (Europe))

References

{{US-diplomat-stub Living people 1946 births Ambassadors of the United States to Croatia Ambassadors of the United States to Nepal University of Washington Foster School of Business alumni 20th-century American diplomats 21st-century American diplomats