Although “For What It’s Worth” is often considered an anti-war song, Stephen Stills was inspired to write the song because of the Sunset Strip curfew riots in November 1966—a series of early counterculture -era clashes that took place between police and young people on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, California, beginning in mid-1966, the same year Buffalo Springfield had become the house band at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip.
I remember. I was only mid-teens, but I read/heard about it at the time, and later covering it in my various bands... "For What It's Worth" has always had a deep personal connection.