Don Corleone has made a full recovery and reassumed his role as head of the family in the wake of Sonny’s death. The other families fully expect retribution for Sonny’s death, and so everyone—except Tom Hagen—is surprised when Don Corleone proposes peace instead. He goes one step further, proposing peace between all of the families across the United States. He has invited representatives from all the families to come to a meeting about his peace proposal. The other families are still understandably wary, and so Don Corleone hires the Bocchicchio family to act as hostages.

The Bocchicchio family has a waste management business, among other concerns. When a meeting is to take place between two Mafia members who do not trust one another, the Bocchicchio family gives a family member to each man, as a surety for the two men in the meeting. If either one of the men is killed in the meeting, the other man’s representative hostage will be killed by the other family. Then the family who perpetrated the original harm will have to deal with the Bocchicchio family and the vengeance that they will seek. When Don Corleone hires the Bocchicchios, all the other families are reassured that his stated intentions are true, and that they will be safe.