RICHMOND — The last time Sen. John McCain lay dying, he was in a North Vietnamese prison cell having been brutally tortured.

Over the propaganda loudspeaker, one of Mr. McCain’s fellow prisoners of war would later recall, the brave Americans heard the voice, clearly, that of an American, testifying before Congress that it was the American forces like John McCain — not the North Vietnamese — who were committing torture and murder over in Vietnam.

American servicemen “personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam,” claimed the American, reportedly a U.S. Navy officer.

Such unverified testimony in the hands of the North Vietnamese was a massive propaganda win. And a devastating blow to American POWs, such as John McCain, who was clinging to life in such savage conditions.

Decorated Vietnam War veteran and POW Paul Galanti would later recall that it was the soft, effeminate pronunciation of “Genghis Khan” that tipped him off that the testifying turncoat was none other than John Kerry, who would later become a senator, his party’s failed presidential nominee and eventually one of the worst secretaries of state in U.S. history.

“I don’t remember hearing his name, but he’s the only human being I’ve ever heard that said ‘Genghis Khan,’ ” recalled Mr. Galanti, pronouncing the name “Jenjis Kahn.”

“When I heard him saying that a couple of months ago, I said, ‘My God! That’s the same guy I heard in Hanoi they were promoting as a big friend of theirs!’ “

As heroes like John McCain and Paul Galanti rotted in prisoner camps, John Kerry — safely back stateside — was throwing away his medals and accusing his former fellow servicemen of committing the worst atrocities imaginable.

In other words, plotting a lifelong political career.

Once again, America finds Mr. McCain heroically fighting for his life, this time against cancer. Perhaps inspired by such heroism, Mr. Kerry has dusted off his old turncoat from his French closet and is turning traitor against the United States again.

According to the Boston Globe, Mr. Kerry has been spotted in New York City, conspiring with our sworn enemies to undermine U.S. foreign policy.

Mr. Kerry doesn’t have anything positive to claim from his years as President Obama’s secretary of state. So, instead, he clings to the sewage barge of his diplomatic career: the rotten deal he helped cut with Iran.

Based on lies from a theocratic terrorist nation hellbent on destroying the United States and Israel, Mr. Kerry’s “deal” gave Iran hundreds of millions in taxpayer cash, plus billions more to fund the country’s terror efforts around the globe. It requires only the flimsiest of sham inspections and basically puts Tehran on a glide path back to building a nuclear bomb in less than 10 years.

If Teddy Roosevelt spoke softly but carried a big stick and President Trump talks loud and also carries a big stick, then Mr. Kerry speaks loudly and carries a tiny stick. Or maybe no stick at all. Or if he even has a stick he gives it to his enemy.

The man is a diplomatic, political imbecile.

Unlike Mr. Kerry, President Trump got elected president. And, unlike Mr. Kerry, President Trump got elected president promising to dismantle Mr. Kerry’s disastrous — even traitorous — deal with Iran.

Still not elected president ever, Mr. Kerry has once again gone underground to conspire with the enemy to undermine U.S. foreign policy.

Two weeks ago in New York, according to the Globe, “more than a year after he left office, he engaged in some unusual shadow diplomacy with a top-ranking official.”

“The rare moves by a former secretary of state highlight the stakes for Kerry personally, as well as for other Obama-era diplomats who are dismayed by what they see as Trump’s disruptive approach to diplomacy.”

Try to imagine for a second if some unelected diplomat from the Jimmy Carter administration had tried to interfere with President Reagan’s efforts to end the Cold War. Or if Condoleezza Rice had huddled with leaders from Iraq and Afghanistan to undermine President Obama’s policies in the region.

Of course, you cannot imagine that because it is unimaginable that even Jimmy Carter would have ever hired such a buffoon so utterly committed to hurting America.

Well, now that we are all so whipped up into such a frenzy over anyone who might be colluding with a foreign enemy to undermine the free will of the people and hijack the American political process, we should certainly take a hard look at Mr. Kerry.

And if he sets foot back at the United Nations or anywhere else Iran’s terror leaders can be found, Mr. Kerry should be arrested and thrown in jail.

For starters, anyway.

• Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com; follow him on Twitter via @charleshurt.