How did Vito Corleone know Tessio was the Traitor? Why Did Tessio Betray Michael Corleone?

why did don corleone's most trusted and close personal friend end up betraying the heir to the corleone family don michael corleone tessio was one of the most important members in the corleone mafia family playing a critical role since its inception and whose talent were used by don vito to build the corleone empire in the film vito warns michael that he's a traitor don't forget that and just as he predicted michael was approached exactly in that way but unfortunately it turned out to be one of the most important individuals in the family many people have been asking a lot of different questions about this situation as well as questions about the kappa regime himself salvator tessio which we will uncover however we will be mainly focusing on more intriguing aspects such as how did don vito know with full certainty that all this would happen how did the don use the philosophy of the infamous nicolo machiavelli to his advantage and warn his son michael about what to expect so even though most of us already have a pretty clear picture of exactly how everything happened we were mainly focusing on and diving into the don's brain and analyzing his thinking process and hopefully we could all learn and somehow benefit from all this people are businessmen their loyalty is based on that to start with veto didn't know exactly who would approach michael rather he understood the game and knew how people around him think so the real question is how did vito predict this was going to happen this generally translates into real life whether in the mafia or even the modern day workplace people's loyalty and priorities will always be held above anything else until they find a better opportunity so as a leader especially in the world of the mafia where loyalty to the dawn is only held the fear and the fact they know they will benefit from the power security and money that obeying the don gives them however if they find someone else more powerful or greed reaches the point that they think they could overthrow the dawn and take over they will definitely do so therefore it's usually justified as not being personal rather strictly business felt like it was only business i always liked it something that veto had instilled in michael and something he would have to learn the hard way was that no matter who it is people will always put their self-interests above loyalty which is why veto emphasized the role of family as he believed that bond could not be broken he understood that once he is gone the seat of power will be vacant open for someone to take over even though he has been building and supporting michael to take over the family he knew that the loyalty of his men may not transfer to his son especially as he understood human nature especially after seeing how they were receiving michael as the acting dawn and how they immediately were looking to move away from the family mike you're wrong you once said that the day would come when tessier when we could form our own family till today i would never think of it i must ask your permission although fairly subtle this is probably the most obvious sign that don knew that some of his men are not too happy or supportive and when given the chance as loyal as they were to him they wouldn't extend the same loyalty to his son we saw how much he trusted and how highly he regarded with tessio and clemenza they were his most trusted men and the ones that for years had been standing alongside him building the empire but even so vito always took precautions that even with the extremely low chance of betrayal he would always be one step ahead guaranteeing that no one could ever think to overthrow him an example of this is shown after veto had become the powerful dawn following his victory in the olive oil war he gave both tessio and clemenza a regime and a large territory however he made sure they were both disconnected and completely separated always having to go through him in addition he told them to never even interact socially out in public any interaction between the two would be in the presence of the dawn or in rare occasions this is so they could not collaborate and scheme against him the dawn was insulated from any chance of betrayal but what's interesting is that even with all this vito trusted tessio more than clemenza why do you think that was the case it seems that tessia was generally more intelligent and just overall more straightforward than clemenza in addition he later proved himself to be a better general in conflict in fact from a strategic standpoint as mentioned by michael it was the smart move to make the reason for this is because from their point of view michael was a weak leader and having him take over the family would mean that they would not be able to reclaim their territories or position they once had therefore negotiating with the much more powerful don barzini a deal where they can end the hostilities and at least come out with something let alone what remains of the corleone [Music] from empire was to try to think as people around you think so why was one of the most loyal friends in koppel regimes end up being the one who would betray the family well there are actually a few reasons in the novel it's made clear that michael was extremely distraught that it was tessio who was the traitor not just because of the personal friendship or anything of the sort but because he was such a crucial member of the corleone family he had been responsible for some of the family's most important victories he was an extremely powerful asset and finding out that he was the traitor means that they lose his expertise as he has dug his own grave and to really summarize the reason for someone like tessio or anyone for that matter to even think about let alone actually betray michael was the fact michael was not feared and this perfectly encapsulates this scenario the long-time loyal member of the corleone family someone who had an integral role in building the empire but furthermore someone with a personal connection to michael and seemed to genuinely love michael he did not fear him therefore as machiavelli states as soon as danger approaches he would turn against him and that's exactly what happened after the barzinis began chipping away at their territories losing their power and money tessio and clemenza asked for vengeance but michael ordered them to wait this clearly did not sit well will either one and veto and michael could see that in the end tessio began plotting against michael at don corleone's funeral tessio arranged for michael's assassination at a peace summit set up by emilio barzini who had become the strongest dawn in new york the summit was to be held on tessio's territory in brooklyn where michael would supposedly be safe in return tessia would inherit the corleone family however michael had anticipated the plot by way of a warning from his father who stated that the person who would approach him about the peace deal would be the traitor whoever comes to you with this barzini meeting he's a trader don't forget that tom initially thought the trader would be clemenza but michael was not surprised since tessio was always the smarter one some people question if barzini was the one who had approached tessio similar to how he did with paulie or even carlo however this was definitely not the case with tessio rather tessio himself went and approached barzini to strike a deal as barzini wouldn't target someone that high up as it could uncover his plot rather barzini knew he just needed to wait until vito's death and the seemingly weak and inexperienced michael corleone to take over in which will then begin the final collapse of the corleone family where he can finally bury his biggest opponents once and for all as barzini could have been playing tessio as well he could have promised him to take over what would remain of the corleone family however than just take him out as he now knows that if tessio was willing to betray his own family the people who he had served for years he definitely would not be loyal to someone who he once considered an enemy another question some people have been asking was whether tecio had been working with outsiders prior to this event and again the answer is absolutely no tessio had been extremely loyal to his dawn and the family and he was the don's go to capo for important matters we never do get to see in the films or in the main novel however we do get a glimpse of what happened in the later novels as tessio and hagen were preparing to attend the summit willie chichi told him that michael was coming in a separate car tessio was visibly upset saying that it threw off his so-called arrangements hagan says he can't come along either while chi-chi and several of clemenza's men surround tessio realizing that michael has found out about his treachery tessio asked tom to tell michael that it was only business and he always liked him tessio then asked tom if he could get him off the hook for old time's sake tom regretfully rejected his appeal willie chichi and a few other men drove tessio to two toms his very own social club where his traitorous men were executed tessio and his dead co-conspirators were then brought to an abandoned gas station on staten island where he was executed by his former protege nick jirachi while el neri looked on his death was attributed to the barzini family since staten island was their territory which explained the death of don barzini at the same time tessio's wife and his children were provided for by the corleones after his death thank you for joining the culture mafia you

Channel: The Culture Mafia

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Keywords: the godfather, al pacino, michael corleone, sonny corleone, the godfather part 1, the godfather clip, the godfather theme, mafia, marlon brando, mafia documentary, families of the mafia, goodfellas, godfather, michael franzese, the culture mafia, don corleone, lucky luciano, cosa nostra, mafia boss, the real life godfather, tessio, real life mobsters, real life mobster movies, entrepreneur, mafia business, francis ford coppola, don vito corleone, THE FIVE FAMILIES

Id: zcjzoJtByhU

Length: 11min 0sec (660 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 20 2021