MARVEL COMICS had a good title that I dug as a kid called "WHAT IF...?", or fate-changing alternative universe results to the MARVEL universe like..."What if Peter Parker was NOT bitten by that radioactive spider?" and so on.

Now with the GODFATHER....what if instead of fate dealing him that card, what if "Mikey" had indeed avoided the family business and stayed clean? What would happen?

A wise-ass friend of mine said he would have eventually become Governor of New York in the 1960's and then Senator then Vice-President in the 1970's...and then became President of the United States of America in 1974 when President Nixon resigned. Wacky!

I can tell you what WOULDN'T have happened....1 more GREAT MOVIE and 1 horrible movie lol

Well there would have to be a specific set of circumstances to prevent Michael Corleone from becoming involved in the family business.

This is how I see it. He goes to Kay's house and arrives at the hospital late on the night of his visit. Fortunately, he is able to save his father with Enzo's help. This is his blood instinct to act in defense for his family, however he is not given much of an alternative. He either saves his fathers life and becomes more or less involved in the crime world, or just stays out of it and lets his father get killed by Sollozzo's men. In the process of doing all of this, Michael gets punched in the face, with in addition to the attempt on Vito's life, makes the whole ordeal personal.

His background of being intelligent and a firm person, I can't picture Michael just stepping away from Sollozzo and McCluskey at this point. They also know this and they want to setup a meeting, in which Michael knows that he must kill them to additionally secure his father's life. His exile to Sicily follows, where he inevitably learns about his past and the nature of the Italian mafia. Over such a long time, he learns to appreciate the ways of the Corleone Family and gets sucked in.

If ALL of this was somehow avoided, by Michael not visiting Kay and letting the goons kill Vito in his hospital bed, things would've turned out very differently. I would assume that Sonny would assume full control of the family business, make the deal with Sollozzo, and start his own personal wars with the other families when necessary. McCluskey would still be alive. Fredo would probably live to be a bit older. Tom would have to be loyal and continue his duty as consiglieri. The Corleone Family would be just another one of the five families.

Michael and Kay could get married. Kay would become a schoolteacher, with Michael running in political office. He could undoubtedly achieve a high position with his persuasive skills and intelligence. The kids Anthony and Mary would grow up as they already do in Part III. They would have a nice future separate from the falling apart family.

Michael had real choices throughout his life. He chose the gangster life. He didn't have to. Even when his father was shot, he had an out: an idea that Michael himself had suggested could have been modified to solve the problem bloodlessly.
The Corleones could have fed the newspapermen on their payroll the story about McCluskey being a dishonest cop mixed up in drugs and murder before, not after, the trigger was pulled. McCluskey was on the take all his life, and the Corleones had all the details because they paid him. The newspapers would have given that story such headlines that the Police Commissioner would have been shamed into providing Vito with an army to protect him, to save further embarrassment. McCluskey and Sollozzo would have been neutralized without any bloodshed. At minimum, McCluskey would have been transferred or suspended pending investigation. With pressure from the Corleone judges, he’d have been indicted for taking bribes. Sollozzo would have been arrested and probably deported as an undesirable alien. With McCluskey alive, the cops would have had no reason to crack down on all Mob activities. There would have been no Five Families War of 1946, leaving it a contest between the Corleones and the Tattaglias—and as we know, Tattaglia was a pimp, alone he could never have outfought Santino.
Michael would have married Kay and gone back to college. I'm guessing he would have become a lawyer. His father was big on law as a career--he told Sonny, "A lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns." Law would have appealed to Michael's power instincts, and he might well have run for political office, perhaps with his father's help and influence. Butwe would have had no Godfather Trilogy.
BTW: At almost all the other points in his life--even after he killed Sollozzo and McCluskey--Michael could have foresaken the gangster life and become truly legit. He always had choices.

And I think he makes his choice very clear at the hospital when he tells Vito, "I'm with you now, Pop." Not just with him in physical presence, but aligned with him in the family business.

tony b.