Did Vito think Barzini was more dangerous than Tattaglia?
No, he did not realize it was Barzini. He tells Tom "Idid not know UNTIL THIS DAY that it was Barzini all along." By "all along" I think he is saying it was Barzini who was really the power behind Sollozzo, and that Tattaglia was merely a front.
If you watch the meeting of all the Dons, you will see Tattaglia keep looking to Barzini to take the lead...and you see Barzini literally take over the meeting.
That I understand, what I'm asking is if Vito knew the truth from the beginning about Barzini, would he have acted differently to refusing the deal with Sollozzo?
Vito's mind was made up about the drug business, not for moral reasons, but for practical ones.
It wouldn't have made a difference who his "would be" partners in drugs would have been. He wouldn't have made the deal with any of them.
I agree he would not have made the deal, but if i understand the underlying question, it is would Vito have acted differently if he knew it was Barzini and not Tattaglia. I would say the answer is yes. First of all he would not have sent Luca to make a deal with the Tattaglias because the Tattaglias were not really calling th shots.
Instead, had he known it was Barzini, I think he would have proceeded with more caution and cunning. He would have seen immediately that Barzini, for whatever reason wanted to be the "hidden hand" in all this, and he would have immediately seen that his position was going to pit the Corleones against all the other five families. I think it would have called for a totally different strategy, perhaps one in which Sollozzo was taken out.
It occurs to me that this could be another potential area where Hagen let the Corleones down. Vito sent Tom to deal with the Johnny Fontaine matter, and that took Tom's eye off the ball on the Sollozzo deal. Tom "just assumed" it was Tattaglia, and as every lawyer knows you never should "just assume" anything.
