No, GPS was actually designed from the start as a dual military and civilian system. The only part that wasn't originally available to civilians was the high precision signal.
No, as usual Wikipedia isn't quite accurate. Here's an actual interview with the "father of GPS".
"BRAD PARKINSON: Absolutely. And there are a lot of misconceptions about that. You hear people saying, well it was a military system and eventually made a civil system. That was not true.
When I testified before Congress back about 1975, I said this is a combination military civil system."
