By Ross Colvin
Colleville-Sur-Mer, France - United States President Barack Obama paid homage to the heroes of D-Day on Saturday, saying their assault on Normandy's beaches exactly 65 years ago had helped save the world from evil and tyranny.
Addressing stooped, white-haired veterans, Obama said the Second World War represented a special moment in history when nations fought together to battle a murderous ideology.
"We live in a world of competing beliefs and claims about what is true," Obama said. "In such a world, it is rare for a struggle to emerge that speaks to something universal about humanity. The Second World War did that."
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His visit to Normandy came at the end of a rapid tour through Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Germany and France, where Obama has tried to reach out to the Muslim world and press for peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Speaking in a giant US military cemetery at Colleville, where 9 387 American soldiers lie, Obama said the war against Nazi Germany laid the way for years of peace and prosperity.
"It was unknowable then, but so much of the progress that would define the twentieth century, on both sides of the Atlantic, came down to the battle for a slice of beach only six miles long and two miles wide," he said.
The Colleville cemetery, with its rows of white crosses and stars of David, overlooks the Omaha Beach landing where US forces on June 6, 1944, suffered their greatest casualties in the assault against heavily fortified German defences. - Reuters
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