But that was the point; he was using the Godfather scenario to comment on other, larger issues. Coppola did the same thing. In this case, Winegardner was commenting on the Mafia's alleged role in soke of America's greatest mishaps - Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, JFK's assassination. Coppola commented on the Mafia's alleged role in the P2/Michele Sindona scandals of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Even Puzo himself considered the Corleones to be, at least in part, inspired as much by the Kennedys as any Mafia family. And in order to copmment on such issues, one has to include those events, or at least fictitious versions of those events.

Enzo is quite right: The Godfather saga and its spinoffs actually have a long history of moving dates to suit the story, not the other way around. In the book The Sicilian, the massacre at Portella Della Ginestra took place in May 1948, not May 1947 as in real history. In the film The Godfather Part III, Pope Paul VI’s death – and the brief reign of Pope John Paul I – took place in 1980, not 1978 as in real history. In the book The Godfather Returns, the Apalachin conference (the book never gives the name Apalachin), in which many Mafia bosses were arrested, occurred in spring 1958, not November 1957. In the book The Godfather’s Revenge, the assassination of the United States president (whose name is James Shea, not John Kennedy) took place in Miami in October 1964, not Dallas in November 1963. So it may not have been done ACCURATELY, but I wouldn't say it wasn't done WELL.