The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics (143 page)

 
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KGB
(Committee for State Security)

The intelligence and security apparatus of the Soviet state. While known as the NKVD, the body was responsible for the prison camps. In the post-Stalin period, it was placed under greater political control, though it remained powerful in foreign espionage and control of dissidents.
SWh 

 
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See
Ibn Khaldun
.

 
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A communist military faction in Cambodia (which they renamed Democratic Kampuchea) which took power under their leader Pol Pot in 1975. They were responsible for genocidal massacres of people from many sectors of the population. Driven from power by the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, they survive as a guerrilla force.

 
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(1894–1971)
Soviet Communist Party Secretary from 1953 to 1964 (Premier from 1958). Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin (‘Secret Speech’ 1956) marked a decisive break in postwar Soviet politics. In foreign policy, Khrushchev maintained the possibility of ‘peaceful coexistence’ with the West, despite stumbling into a superpower showdown over missile deployment in Cuba in 1962. Domestically, the failures of his reorganization of the Party administrative apparatus and reform of agricultural policy contributed to his forced ‘resignation’ in 1964.
SW 

 
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Hebrew word meaning ‘gathering’. A collective farm in Israel, whose members work co-operatively and do not hold private property. Kibbutzim were set up by Jewish settlers in Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel. In the 1960s and 1970s they were popular among idealistic non-Jews in the West, but their popularity has faded.

 
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(1929–68)
Baptist minister who rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as the leader of the American Civil Rights Movement. Having studied theology at Crozier Seminary and Boston University, King became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, and was soon asked to head the ‘Montgomery Improvement Association’ in its campaign for desegregation of city buses. A year later, King founded and headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and travelled throughout the country to campaign for the emerging civil rights movement. King's prominence and oratory power served both to unite and to promote various local campaigns against practices of discrimination, some of which resulted in his arrest and imprisonment. On 28 August 1963, King led a 200,000 strong march on Washington, and delivered his famous ‘I have a dream’ speech from Capitol Hill. Support for the movement was a key factor in the passing of the 1964 Civil Rights and 1965 Voting Rights Acts. He was assassinated in Memphis on 4 April 1968.
King's contribution to the cause of civic activism lies in his justly celebrated doctrine of ‘active non-violence’ (inspired by the teachings and practice of
Gandhi
). Undoubtedly the resolute pacifism of the movement served to promote its cause among white ‘middle America’, as did its concentration on those civil rights, such as the right to vote, which were difficult for most people to dispute. From 1963 onwards King was increasingly criticized by more radical black activist groups for his moderation. In his last years, King turned towards more complex issues affecting black Americans (e.g. the Vietnam War), and attempted to launch a cross-racial coalition against poverty, but his contribution to the dismantling of segregation in the South remains his enduring achievement.
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