And what if Vito had lived another twenty years? What if Barzini died or went to prison or wiped out the Corleones? Just a chance taken? And how would the Senators know when Mike began planning the murders?
Then obviously a different plan would have been made.
And Fredo wouldn't have been killed!
As for how the senators knew when Mike began planning the hits with Vito? Well who knows. Cinematic license? Maybe. Or perhaps those like Pentangeli and Cicci, while under Clemenza, eventually came to learn, just as Clemenza did, that the Corleones were playing possum during those 2 years while actually putting this whole plan together. At some point Clemenza had to have been brought into the loop as he carried out part of the plan on behalf of Michael, as well as Willie Cicci. So Cicci and Pentangeli, in all likelyhood, came to learn that Michael and Vito had this plan in motion for quite some time, and Pentangeli probably gave that information to the Feds when he thought that Michael tried having him killed.
Don Cardi
