I'm puzzle with Tom Hagen was out when Mike take charge of the old man? He do nothing wrong.

Mike didnt want Tom to get messed up with the "Baptism" murders, because he was to be the lawyer in Vegas. Mike somewhat made Vito consigleire, as they were planning the attacks together.

Tom was Vito's choice to be consigliere, not Michael's. Michael wanted to be his own consigliere. Plus, I believe Michael blamed Tom for Sonny's death. He said, "You're not a wartime consigliere, Tom."

Turnbull I respectfully disagree and I believe Carlo was responsible for Sonny's death. Alos Sonny's temper led him to his doom as his judgement was affected, if he thought about it, he should have known it was risky to go into the city.

Don Lights, everything you said is true. But that doesn't preclude the possibility that Michael felt Tom was to blame for not being more vigilant. In the novel, Hagen blames himself for Sonny's death thus: "He was, he knew, no fit consigliere for a family at war. He had been fooled, faked out, by the Five Families and their seeming timidity...Old Genco Abbandando would never have fallen for it, he would have smelled a rat..." Perhaps Michael resented the fact that Sonny's death thrust him into the line of succession--had Sonny lived, Michael might have been able to return from Sicily to a normal life.

I personally blame Sonny's hot temper, not Hagen, for Sonny's death. But, as a non-Sicilian, Hagen failed to appreciate that Sonny's public humiliation of Carlo would fill Sicilian Carlo with an unquenchable need for vengeance. Add to that Carlo's ongoing resentment of being only peripherally involved in the family business, and it should have led to Hagen thinking of the possibility of betrayal.

Michael said No one will make a betetr consligere than my father. Michael made the decision of Tom Hagen not being consligere because he still had his father and everyone knew Vito was the perfect candidate for consligere to Michael. Tom Hagen was no war time consligere, but Tom was a brother and losing Sonny was blow to the family as everyone felt his loss and I don't see how one brother should blame the other for not forseeing his brothers death.

Well friends,
I haven't read the book for almost five years, but I will still take a crack at it. Quite simply Hagen screwed up. He was good with the law and relations. He, like previously was said, he is not a war time consigliere. And instead of killing someone who is legally a brother of Mike (he was adopted), he simply took him out of the game. He still loved him, and allowed him to stay as the family lawyer. But I think you two have already said everything so this isn't really needed. Ciao. Ciao.