Deliberate or not. It profoundly affected my family.
My father was a Lt. Col in the Marines at the time. He an LCDR Armstrong, the XO of the Liberty, were best friends.I knew him as "Uncle Phil", I was only 10 years old at the time, but I don't ever remember my dad drinking before Uncle Phil was killed. Later, drinking killed my dad, his liver turned to stone.
The thing that was strange was the guards that were put around sick bay on the America to keep anyone from getting near the Liberty crew. Many of us commented on it. I still have some pictures of the Liberty that I took the day after the attack. Some other ones that I had have been lost.