My question: Did Don Corleone really believe (mistakenly) that the politicians and police would refuse to protect the drug trade or was he using this argument as a smokescreen for other qualms he had about getting involved in drugs?
He certainly saw the drugs business as a threat to the police and political protection he'd put together to protect his gambling and labor rackets. I believe that was his primary motivation in turning down Sollozzo.
But the novel adds a nuance: He tells Tom that "what he [Sollozzo] will propose is an
infamia." And, at the end of their conference, the Don tells Tom, "Do you have it in your notes that Sollozzo made his living before the war from prostitution, as the Tattaglias do now? Write that down before you forget." Tom concludes that this bodes ill for the drugs deal because the Don "was notoriously straight-laced in matters of sex."
(BTW: That sentence is another example of Puzo's, uh, sloppy writing. Can you imagine Vito being "notorious" for being straight-laced in matters of sex? How did he get that "notoriety"? I can just picture it now: at the Don's Convention, they're all whispering, "Better not make any Paris Hilton jokes while Vito's around..."
)
