When I was in high school the Buffalo Springfield was starting out playing clubs on Sunset Strip.
We used to cruise up to Hollyweird and hang out with a zillion of our closest friends. Wouldn't go to the clubs, just would mill around Hollywood. This annoyed the LAPD so the city council enacted a curfew, and the curfew was met with basically a teenager riot.
This is what this song was inspired by. The long forgotten Sunset Strip Riot. Not Vietnam, not antiwar protests, not anything important. It's about the LAPD stomping on a bunch of rowdy LA and OC punk teenagers.
You are right on about this. But let me add, Stephen Stills handed the piece of paper, with the lyrics on it, to his producer and said, “here’s a song, for what it’s worth.”