....Luca was the armor. Sollozzo had to find a way to eliminate Luca before he tried to negotiate with Sonny. Luca was more important than Sonny in Sollozzo’s plan. And that scenario shows us where the Don was really slippin’:
......But he knew he couldn’t survive to negotiate with Sonny unless he first eliminated Luca. He knew that nothing would stop Luca from seeking revenge. ..... So, he needed all that time to find a way to get rid of Luca first.
And Vito handed Luca to him on a silver platter:
....With Luca out of the way, Sollozzo was free to attack Vito without fear of retaliation from the Corleones’ most implacable defender. .....By eliminating Luca, Sollozzo gained the psychological upper hand, and cleared the path to making Sonny and Hagen consider his proposition by showing them that their armor had been stripped away.......
I agree 100% TB. Luca was the Don's most loyal and powerful ally.
There was no way that Luca would ever go against the Don and no way that Sollozo and company could let a powerful man like Luca live if they planned on taking out Vito and getting the Corleone's to negotiate with them. One exchange between Tom and Sonny really supports the point that you have made here :
TOM: "
Now what about Luca? Sollozzo didn't seem to be worried about Luca..."
SONNY:
"Aw --I don't know -- if Luca sold out we're in a lot of trouble, believe me. A lot of trouble." Sold out, killed, it's all is the same at that point because Sonny realizes that without Luca the Corleones are in trouble because they've lost a huge chunk of their strength.
If I may I would like to reference the book here for a moment to shed even more light on the fact that Sonny knew, and Vito should have knwon, that Luca was one of the most important pieces to the Corleone power :
In the novel when young Don Vito is shot by the Irish gang, it is then that Santino makes his mark by running the family and commanding a very successful street war. But it is that one piece of artillery that enables young Santino to achieve victory in that war : Luca Brazi. For it was Luca who singlehandedly went out and destroyed that Irish gang.
Barzini and Tattaglia knew this and therefore in their plan with Sollozo to attempt to kill Vito, they had to make sure that Vito's strongest piece of artillery was rendered impotent in order for them to achieve what they were trying to achieve. And what did Vito do? He handed his TOP street soldier, his best weapon, his strongest piece of artillery, right over to the enemy.
A huge mistake on Vito's part to send a man like Luca on a mission like that. A young and sharp General would never make that mistake. But he was ten years older, he was slippin.
