He spoke under a sunny sky at the American Cemetery on cliffs overlooking Omaha Beach and the rest of the Normandy coastline where on June 6, 1944 Allied ships disgorged American, British and Canadian soldiers under the withering fire of Nazi troops awaiting the Allies' cross-channel gamble.
Arriving by helicopter, Obama visited an American battlefield museum with his wife, Michelle; laid a wreath in honor of the fallen; greeted U.S. military members; and mingled with uniformed World War II veterans.
Normandy's cliffs, still pocked with gun emplacements and other reminders of the war, including the white headstones of thousands of fallen American troops, provided sure footing for a new U.S.
commander in chief who has made an early priority of strengthening America's relations with Europe. Obama noted that Normandy has been visited by many U.S. presidents and predicted, "Long after our time on this Earth has passed, one word will still bring forth the pride and awe of men and women who will never meet the heroes who sit before us: D-Day."
He said the lessons of that pivotal effort are eternal.
"Friends and veterans, what we cannot forget - what we must not forget - is that D-Day was a time and a place where the bravery and selflessness of a few was able to change the course of an entire century," he said.
One American veteran of the D-Day landings, Ralph K. Manley, 85, stood among the graves at the American cemetery and marveled at the thousands of visitors. Manley, who lost a twin brother in the war and was a parachute infantryman with the 101st Airborne Division at Normandy, told a reporter that the importance of the commemoration went beyond Obama's presence.
"I can see President Obama on the television when I'm home," he said. "But I could never see all the respect and courtesy that all these people pay to come here this day. That's the part that feels really heartwarming, the one that makes me feel good about the sacrifices we made. I'm so thankful I'm not one of those tombstones right here."
Before the ceremony, Obama met in nearby Caen with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. In an exchange with reporters, Obama indicated that he was considering stronger responses to what he called North Korean provocations.
Obama said he preferred to stick to a diplomatic approach to North Korea, after its nuclear and ballistic missile tests, but said that would work only if the communist nation was willing to engage in serious talks. He made no mention of a military option, but suggested he sees a limit to the effectiveness of diplomacy.
"I don't think there should be an assumption that we will simply continue down a path in which North Korea is constantly destabilizing the region and we continue to act in the same ways," he said.
Speaking at Omaha Beach at a time when he is directing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - both of which have lasted longer than the U.S. involvement in World War II - Obama described in stark terms the harsh conditions the Allied invaders faced at Normandy. He noted that in many ways the seaborne invasion plan went awry, leaving the assaulting forces vulnerable to Nazi guns in their path.
"When the ships landed here at Omaha, an unimaginable hell rained down on the men inside," he said. "Many never made it out of the boats."
But the Allies prevailed, gathering strength for a breakout from Normandy in July that opened a path toward Paris and eventually took the Allies all the way to Germany and victory over the Nazis.
Obama paid tribute to the Allies - the British, the Canadian, the French as well as the Russians, "who sustained some of the war's heaviest casualties on the Eastern front."
"At an hour of maximum danger, amid the bleakest of circumstances, men who thought themselves ordinary found it within themselves to do the extraordinary," Obama said. "They fought out of a simple sense of duty - a duty sustained by the same ideals for which their countrymen had fought and bled for over two centuries."
Earlier, Sarkozy, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown each recalled the sacrifices of the Allies.
Obama noted that his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, arrived at Normandy six weeks after D-Day and marched across France in Lt.
Gen. George S. Patton's army. Attending with Obama was his great uncle, Charles Payne, who was part of the first American division to reach and liberate a Nazi concentration camp that Obama and his great uncle visited in Germany on Friday.
Obama saluted the contributions of individual veterans of the Normandy landings, including one veteran, Jim Norene, who fought as a member of the 101st Airborne Division.
"Last night, after visiting this cemetery for one last time, he passed away in his sleep," the president said. "Jim was gravely ill when he left his home, and he knew that he might not return.
But just as he did 65 years ago, he came anyway. May he now rest in peace with the boys he once bled with, and may his family always find solace in the heroism he showed here."
Before France, Obama visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Germany.
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