Vito was smart enough to know that Tom wasn't a wartime consigliere. But, who else was there? I guess Vito was hoping that there'd be no war to test Tom. In the meanwhile, he counted on Tom to control Sonny's temper, and to be the family's political front man.

Sonny treated Tom shabbily before that family dinner ("Pop had Genco, look who I got") but he apologized immediately. Michael dissed Tom several times and didn't apologize once.