I'm sorry if this has been discussed before but in a deleted scene and after Vito was hit, Michael tells Sonny to check with Vito on how the family should proceed. Michael does not agree with Sonny's approach.

What would Vito have done differently if he was still able to give the order? Perhaps he would have negotiated a truce and Sonny was too hot and taking it personally basically pushing the family to start a war. Perhaps he would have negotiated with the other Families? I don't know.

What would Michael have done? Maybe Part 2 Michael may have not killed Paulie outright and instead used him to feed him false information and to find out who was behind it all - Barzini.

What do you think?

I don't recall Michael telling Sonny to check with Vito, whose condition was too grave for him to give any counsel at that point. Michael did initially say, "Wait, Sonny." (But, after McCluskey pulled Vito's guards from the hospital, and broke Michael's jaw, he changed his tune: "You can't wait.")

I agree that Vito probably would have tried to prevent an all-out war and reined in Sonny. He probably would have tried to appear weak, in order to fool his enemies and prepare for a counterattack at a time and place of his choosing. As for Michael, we saw him counsel the same approach in III, after the Atlantic City machine gun attack.

Is this maybe in the book, where Michael says, "That's not how Pop would play it?" Could be a deleted scene, too - I don't know.

I think Vito might have played a longer game, pushing the non-combatant families to push the Tattaglias to give up Sollozzo. Perhaps even pushing Barzini into action against the course he was secretly pursuing. Tom probably anticipated what he would do by cautioning against anything that would pit the Corleones against all of the other families.

Michael says in the deleted scene "Wait Sonny...talk to pop." Sonny replies with "Wait? C'mon...Solozzo's a dead man badabeet. Now I don't care what it costs I mean we're gonna go after all them families the Tattaglia's are gonna eat dirt." Michael says "That's not how pop would play it".

Vito would have seen no virtue in a war. He would negotiate a resolution probably not unlike the one he agreed to at the Dons' meeting.

By the way, Tom tells Sonny at the bottom of the stairs after Vito returns from the hospital: " ... let the smoke clear -- Pop can negotiate.

SONNY: "No, Pop can't do nothin' til he's better! I'm going to decide what's going to be done."