I need to form the equivalent of a Union Join in Oracle 8i, even though a Union Join doesn't appear to be supported in 8i. I might be able to manipulate a Full Outer Join to get the results I need ...

But using LEFT JOINS is just the way I have always done it because that is the way I look at the problem in my head. The SQL engine doesn't care. I was wondering why you were trying to use a CROSS ...