This is just an incidental observation that doesn't further the topic at hand , but since we've temporarily sidetracked onto the subject of Khartoum and the circumstances of his death, I thought I would post it.

While I was watching the Saga on TV, the scene of Tom meeting with Vito and Sonny is inserted after Tom returns from Hollywood. After Vito hears what Tom has to say about Woltz, he says, "Call Luca Brasi. We're going to find a way to reason with this Woltz." Then the scene cuts to Woltz's mansion and shows his "rude awakening."

Immediately after that, the movie cuts back to Vito, still in his living room, his head tilted contemplatively, as he resumes his conversation with Tom and Sonny. I thought that was a very odd point at which to insert the Woltz scene because it almost appears as though Vito took a moment to "day dream" his ideal Woltz intimidation scenario, instead of actually carrrying it out in concrete reality. It's as if Vito momentarily lapsed into a fugue state until Tom and Sonny's words brought him back into the present. (I know "fugue" isn't quite the right word, but it's the closest psychological approximation I can think of.)

It would have made more sense to have Vito, Tom, and Sonny finish their discussion (even though it focused on Sollozzo in its later stages), THEN break to a new scene (which would indicate a new point in time) showing Woltz discovering Khartoum, and THEN break again to a slightly later point in time by showing the Sollozzo meeting. All this made me ponder about whether FFC employed a different editor to put together The Saga. The Godfather is generally not an "interiorized" film; i.e., it doesn't visualize for us the interior thoughts of its protagonists. The only exceptions are Michael's reminiscences at the end of GF2 & GF3 (and saving the technique til the end like that was masterful, as it heightened the impact of the tragedy). Maybe this editor wanted to show us "what Vito was thinking," but cutting the scene that way was kind of out of step with the overall tone of the film.

A tiny flaw, anyway... but I digress. All in all, the scene does show us, as Turnbull noted, that killing Khartoum was Vito's idea .