<P> Unlike his two older brothers, Michael wants nothing to do with the Corleone "family business", wanting instead to lead a more normal, Americanized life . Vito does not want Michael to join the Corleone criminal empire either, preferring that his favorite son go into politics . As a young man, Michael enrolls in Dartmouth College, but dropped out in 1941 to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps when the United States enters World War II . During the war, he fights in the Pacific, and is wounded in battle . He receives a battlefield commission to the rank of captain and is awarded the Navy Cross for bravery . His war heroism is featured in Life magazine . </P> <P> During the summer of 1945, Michael has been discharged from the Marine Corps . Vito had secretly arranged for his discharge . He returns home to attend his sister Connie's wedding, accompanied by Kay Adams, his college sweetheart . Michael stays for a few weeks before re-entering college without consulting his family . </P> <P> Just before Christmas 1945, Vito is severely wounded in an assassination attempt by drug kingpin Virgil Sollozzo, throwing Michael into the middle of the Mafia world he had for so long avoided . Arriving at the hospital to find his father unprotected, Michael calls Sonny and prevents Sollozzo's second attempt on Vito's life, then reaffirms his loyalty at his father's bedside . Captain Mark McCluskey, a corrupt NYPD officer on Sollozzo's payroll, breaks Michael's jaw . In retaliation for trying to kill Vito, Sonny orders the murder of Bruno Tattaglia, son and underboss of Sollozzo's ally Philip Tattaglia . Sollozzo proposes that Michael be sent to broker a truce, but Sonny, believing that it's a trap, refuses and demands that the other Mafia families hand over Sollozzo to the Corleone family or else face war . Michael suggests they agree to Sollozzo's meeting but insist that it be in a public place, where he will kill both Sollozzo and McCluskey . Hagen warns Sonny that killing McCluskey would violate a long - standing Mafia rule not to kill police officers, and that the backlash from rival Mafia families and law enforcement would be severe . Michael successfully argues that McCluskey is fair game because he is a corrupt cop mixed up in the drug trade and serving as Sollozzo's bodyguard . Sonny agrees and approves the hit . </P> <P> Michael meets with Sollozzo and McCluskey at an Italian restaurant in the Bronx, retrieves a handgun that Corleone caporegime Peter Clemenza had planted beforehand in the toilet and kills Sollozzo and McCluskey . This ignites the New York underworld's first Mafia war in a decade . </P>

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