In GF1 Vito sends Luca, his most powerful and most loyal executioner on a fool's errand that results in Luca's demise. In GF2 Michael sends Rocco on an assignment that is even more obviously a ticket to the afterlife.

Now both men were supposed to follow orders. At the same time following orders should not be suicidal. Maybe Luca was too stupid to realize that his attempt at playing double agent would be seen as ludicrous but I would have thought Rocco would have said something like "Uh Mike,not questioning your judgment or anything but after I do Roth, how do I escape again ?"

Why didn't Luca or Rocco alert their bosses to flaws in the plan or come up with variations that didn't result in their death?

Luca and Rocco didn't say anything because they were FOLLOWING ORDERS.

Ya know, the honourable lifestyle? Unlike todays dogs.

Indeed, but except for a few fanatics (Luca?), I would imagine that even the most loyal hitman/capo wants to survive.

There are a million other places besides in front of armed police and FBI agents that Rocco could have murdered Roth or arranged to have it done. I was thinking of Puzo's character Pippi DeLena (Last Don) who when faced with similar orders told his son something like (paraphrasing) "The boss gives me a job. I get it done. But I run the operation. Never let the bosses tell you how to do a job" .

Since Luca prided himself on his widely known singleminded loyalty/ferocity for Vito, both he and Vito should have realized that Luca was the wrong choice for a more delicate assignment.

You're right, Lilo. It is hard to believe that Vito thought the plan with Luca would have worked. (I'm not sure Luca thought at all.) In his defense, in the book the plan is a little more drawn out than simply having Luca walk up to the Tattaglias and tell them he wants to join them.

The parallel Michael/Vincent plan had a better chance of succeeding, if only because Vincent wasn't known to be as being excessively loyal to Michael, and he has a motive for dissatisfaction (Mary).

This brings up another problem with Rocco's assassination of Roth...

Michael had just narrowly escaped prosecution on organized crime charges. Why would he send someone publicly identified as one of his top men on a suicide mission to kill another mobster? I know it was an important job and all, but, if only to preserve whatever veneer of legitimacy he had left, it would have made more sense to use a Busetta type - someone with no apparent connection to the Family.

Fredo going against the family was a suicide mission.

Come to think of it what was the sense of Luca's mission anyway? Vito wanted to figure out what was under Sol's fingernails, but all Luca would have learned had he lived was that he was alogned with the Tattaglias, which they Already knew. Barzini never showed his face to Luca. And lets say for argument's sake that they bought Luca's story. what does he do next? Take the money and run bck to Corleone and tell him that Sol and Tattaglia's son gave him 50 K?

At least in III when Michael and Vincent use the same ploy, Vincent learns that Altobello and Luchese are connected, and a plot is set in motion to kill them both.

As for the Roth asassination, it has to be directorial license.
Clearly Roth would have been connected enough to make bail pending trial (or that failing have another of his famous heart attacks and be put in a hospital. Either way that would have given Rocco an escape route.

I don't believe that Vito thought he was sending Luca on a suicide mission--even though it was absurd to think Luca could convince Tat and Sol that he was considering leaving the Corleones. As has been said a thousand times, the Don was slippin.'

Rocco's mission was definitely one-way. After humiliating Tom for saying it was impossible to kill Roth, and inviting him to leave the family if he didn't go along with him in the things he had to do, Michael turned to Rocco. In effect, he gave Rocco no choice. Since Neri had been maneuvering to get ahead of Rocco and Tom, Rocco may have viewed the mission as a last chance to get back in to Michael's good graces. If he said no, he'd be out--perhaps killed sooner rather than later. The brute-force was that Neri was Michael's choice while Rocco had been Clemenza's man. Rocco was expendable, Neri wasn't.

Michael definitely took a big risk sending Rocco on that mission because Rocco was identified with him. But he was determined--obsessed--to nail Roth. Rocco dead on the spot was less a threat to Michael than Rocco alive and in police custody. And Michael knew it, which is why he said, "I want it [Roth's plane] met," instead of suggesting a plan that was less risky to Rocco.

In that case Rocco paid the ultimate price and knew so going in. Perhaps that was his way of being assured the Corleones would always take care of his family (assuming he had one) because he died with honor.

Would Michael have cared if Rocco had said "It's done Mike" but then proceeded to set up a plan which involved throwaway gunmen, distractions and most importantly had Rocco himself nowhere near the assassination?

If Rocco had strolled back in the compound and told everyone to watch the news would Michael be satisfied that the job was done or be silently asking himself "I thought I sent that guy on a suicide mission. What's he doing back here? Note to self: watch him..."

In the book, Luca considers taking an untraceable gun, in case Solozzo shows himself and Luca can finish him off. Luca decides, though, to take his licensed gun, listen to the proposition, and report back to the Don. It (like the whole infiltration scheme) is yet another example of the recurring theme that thinking too much can lead to ruin.

...which raises a question: Since it was important to Michael that Rocco not survive and be a liability to him, how did he assure that Rocco wouldn't do just what you described? When Rocco said, "Difficult, not impossible," we might infer that, as an operating executive of the Family, Rocco easily could have pulled together a hit crew in the manner you described. MIchael would know that. If he'd said, "I need you to pull the trigger, Rocco--and don't involve anyone else," Rocco would have to know it was an intentional suicide mission.

Calo probably volunteered to go on his suicide mission. He was so shaken by the murder of Don Tomassino that he would stop at nothing to take revenge, and gladly gave up his own life. I mean what kind of plan whereby you go up to a man who has an armed body guard in the room, whisper something in his ear and then rip off his glasses and stab him in the neck?

Calo is clearly eager to avenge Don Tomassino at any price.

Unlike Neri and Rocco, Calo is not a businessman and his loyalty is based on something more than money. I think Michael's realization of the difference is largely what spurred his self-reflection at Tomassino coffin.

When Rocco kills Roth, the scene is clearly a re-creation of Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald in the basement of the Dallas police station: Roth in custody, being flanked by cops on both sides, Rocco diving in with the pistol to shot him in the gut.

It was FFC's way of injecting the Kennedy assassination (carried out by the Mafia) into GF2.